Microsoft to supply US Army with 120,000+ HoloLens units in contract worth 'up to $22bn'

Microsoft has agreed to supply at least 120,000 production units of its HoloLens augmented-reality headsets to the US Army. In 2018, the software giant signed a $480m contract to supply 100,000 prototypes of the techno-goggles to Uncle Sam. This first batch of hardware was intended to "increase lethality by enhancing the …

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Augmented Reality

Blue on Blue BSOD

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Augmented Reality

Maybe the choice of a blue background wasn't the best marketing move in this context..

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

This will result in

A, Lots of studies, Prototypes, Powerpoints, Promotions - but no kit actually delivered to troops

B, Kit delivered to troops, immediately discovered to be useless / not-working and hidden in a Conex until the fad blows over

C, Actually used in anger at which point it fails and gets large number of our own side killed

D, All of the above

[Neil Barnes]

Re: This will result in

I think you missed the bit where the opponent's first strike knocks the cloud offline (and sends a message to all users telling them how many bitcoins it will cost to get their data back...)

[Flocke Kroes]

Re: This will result in

a cheap drone that drops hand grenades on wifi transmitters?

[Blank Reg]

Re: This will result in

"gets large number of our own side killed"

This is the US military we're talking about here, this is going to happen regardless

[Earth Resident]

Re: This will result in

This will obviously result in another $22 billion pissed into the street by MICIMATT. What every effective terrorist soldier needs!

[Potemkine!]

The IVAS headset, based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft Azure cloud services, delivers a platform that will keep soldiers safer and make them more effective

Ant that for about 363 days per year! (the leap ones)

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Clippy!

Are you trying to kill that person you are pointing your gun at? Let me help you...

[spudmasterflex]

April fools already....

[Graham Cunningham]

Just a heads-up...

Presumably they meant a "head-up display". Unless its function is to merge all alerts and warnings into a single general warning, in which case I suppose "unified heads-up display" might mean something.

[Anonymous Coward]

This must be a 1st of April joke

.. and if it isn't, it ought to be.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Just a natural evolution

When you had to carve it in marble: "Veni Vidi Vici"

When you had to use flags: "England expects this day every man to do his duty"

When you had to send a telegram: "I shall return"

When you are used to Powerpoint: "Mission orientation briefing outline from CinC TRHTFEGTEWC to units of HDGECHRWWCFC(force) deployment as part of UN mission HJUEFHVNVNRVHRV", slide 1 / 157. - delivered directly in front of your eyes.

[G.Y.]

s/.../... Re: Just a natural evolution

delete "this day", replace by "that"

[LoPath]

Re: Just a natural evolution

Just imagine hours upon hours of computer based training slides on one of those bad boys!

[amanfromMars 1]

Just a natural temporary hurdle .... or persistent permanent artificial future block?

Go tell out to the Marines, apparently they are in need of some convincing ........ https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/4/1/marines-lack-trust-in-artificial-intelligence

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Just a natural temporary hurdle .... or persistent permanent artificial future block?

I think this can be more generalised to: marines-lack-trust-in-artificial-intelligence.

Nothing against marines, terribly nice chaps (so long as you don't leave any crayons lying around) I just wouldn't want any of my pets to marry one.

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: Just a natural temporary hurdle .... or persistent permanent artificial future block?

I think this can be more generalised to: marines-lack-trust-in-artificial-intelligence.

Nothing against marines, terribly nice chaps (so long as you don't leave any crayons lying around) I just wouldn't want any of my pets to marry one. .... Yet Another Anonymous coward

Methinks that be a common misperception one is wise to not voice within their earshot, Yet Another Anonymous coward, for the all too often fact that the intelligence they are fed and expected to act heroically upon can be corrupted and faulty, rather than that of their own, is not clearly enough made known to ensure they don't take umbrage at your opinion and would seek physical redress by way of immediate swift resolution.

[Blackjack]

The greatest army in the world? More like the most overpriced.

From $480m to $$22bn is quite the price hike even in American fake billions, because a real billion is a million times a million.

[Anonymous Coward]

a "real" billion

hasn't been a million times a million for over 40 years in the UK and forever in the USA

But I still wish we used Gigadollar (G$) and Teradollar (T$) rather than billion and trillion ...

[Unicornpiss]

I'm frightened..

..when I think of Microsoft trying to do anything that's "Mil-spec". I only have my career experiences with mostly consumer-grade and server stuff to fall back on for this opinion, but am not impressed with the reliability of all things Microsoft.

[Blackjack]

Re: I'm frightened..

There is a reason many submarines switched to Linux, you don't want a Blue Screen Of Death in a metal cage under the ocean.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are better alternatives - e.g, SCH, ISG, & TDB by Travalgia [ https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/25/bofh_2021_episode_9/ ] .

They should start with the top brass.