After receiving the first 20 prototypes of the new “1.2” upgraded version of the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) headset from Microsoft [MSFT] this week, the Army’s top acquisition official said Wednesday he’s “cautiously optimistic” the program is “trending in the right direction.”
Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology said the redesigned IVAS 1.2 will go through operational testing this fall, where critical feedback from soldiers on the form factor and adjustments to the headset will inform the direction of the program.
“Hopefully, with this [new] arrangement of the technology plus better software, the infantry soldiers will find that it’s closer to what they want. These are still prototypes, but that’s the big data point that we need back,” Bush told Defense Daily on Wednesday at a House Army Caucus-hosted event on Army modernization.
Brig. Gen. Larry Burris, director of the Army’s Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, told Defense Daily, the design and form factor changes from the initial versions of IVAS include a new a display screen that can be adjusted similar to a traditional night vision device and removing the headset’s large cable by placing the battery system at the back of the headset.
“[IVAS] 1.2 is probably where we wanted to be two years ago, from the form factor, display quality, the low-light sensor, thermal sensor, weight distribution. For reliability, we won’t know until we get into soldiers’ hands,” Burris said. “What I’ll say is we are on the right path with this. The helmet mount’s different, so it’s not stuck to my face all the time. It slides up like a traditional night vision device. I can lock it down. I can adjust the way the lens is angled.”
Following an operational test with the initial 1.0 version of IVAS last June, Army officials detailed a plan to adjust the program’s timeline to address reliability, low-light sensor performance and form factor issues identified during the evaluation and in early January awarded Microsoft a $125 million deal to work on developing IVAS 1.2.
“We did the right thing taking a pause in the program, both Microsoft and the [program executive office]. I think we’ve got something that will lead us to where we want to be with this,” Burris said.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told lawmakers in May the service will “move on” from Microsoft if IVAS 1.2 is unsuccessful in future testing with soldiers (Defense Daily, May 2).
“We want to see if we can get it to a place where it is going to be desirable for our soldiers. We think it can be. But I think Microsoft knows that this is it. They either get it done and get it to a place where our soldiers want to use it or we will move on,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee at the time.
In April, Bush said the Army would be prepared to hold a new competition if the upgrades with IVAS 1.2 did not meet requirements (Defense Daily, April 18).
“But if things don’t work out, we still need the capability for soldiers at some point. So we’d probably do a new competition,” Bush said on Wednesday. “I think we’re trending in the right direction but there’s a lot of work left to do.”
In March 2021, the Army awarded Microsoft a deal worth up to $21.9 billion over the next 10 years to move the IVAS augmented reality headset program from rapid prototyping into production (Defense Daily, March 31 2021).
Bush also detailed the Army’s likely new approach to production plans for IVAS, which he said would be “funding-dependent.”
“I think compared to last time, we’re going to take a measured approach to ramping up production. Kind of like we’ve done with [Next-Generation Squad Weapon], instead of just going straight into full-rate production, we’re doing a series of lots with testing in between. So we don’t over commit right from the start. We can build some, test, build some, test and gain confidence before hitting the big red button for large-scale production,” Bush said. Whatever Congress gives us, we’ll continue to develop it and probably build more prototypes. And then, if things are going well, [FY] ‘25 would probably be our big first year of actual initial production. That will allow us time to do more testing and build more prototypes.”
Bush noted Congress has been “pretty favorable” on IVAS with its FY ‘24 marks, with the Army having requested $165 million for IVAS, covering $76 million for further development of the new “1.2” version of the headset and $89 million to procure the upgraded system.
“And I think that’s because we’ve shown we are listening to the soldiers and we are making changes. Going fast is good but if things don’t work out, you need to change your direction. And I think we did,” Bush told Defense Daily.