Army unveils $22 billion goggle deal with Microsoft

Mixed reality doesn’t come cheap. But the Army thinks a version of Microsoft’s HoloLens with a price tag of $22 billion will help troops in combat as adversaries such as China invest heavily in military technology.

The Army announced the 10-year contract Wednesday for a program that had already been in the works with Microsoft to create a custom high-tech goggle designed to bring night and thermal vision and situational awareness capabilities to soldiers in close combat. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System will lean on the tech giant to create a military-use device that uses augmented reality and machine learning that will also help train soldiers.