Microsoft wins a contract of 0 million US Army

Microsoft Corp. won a $ 480 million contract for the supply of prototype augmented reality systems to the military for combat and training missions, the army said. The contract, which could eventually lead the army to buy more than 100,000 phone headsets, is intended to "increase lethality by improving the ability to detect, decide and engage in front of the enemy", according to a description of program made by the government.

"Augmented reality technology will provide troops with better information to make decisions. This new work expands our long-standing trust with the Department of Defense in this new area, "said a spokesman for Microsoft in a statement.

The US military and the Israeli army have already used Microsoft's HoloLens devices during their training, but actual combat plans would be an important step forward.

HoloLens is one of the leading consumer headphones, but there is still no large consumer market. a video produced for the European Patent Office this spring indicated that he had sold about 50,000 devices. That's about half the number the Army expects to buy as part of its augmented reality program, called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS).

With this contract, the Army immediately becomes one of the largest consumers of HoloLens from Microsoft. He expects devices to differ from their mainstream counterparts in a few key ways. In a document common to companies bidding for the contract, the Army said it wanted to incorporate night vision and thermal detection, measure vital signs such as breathing and "availability", monitor concussions and offer protection of the hearing. He specified that the successful bidder should deliver 2,500 headsets within two years and demonstrate a large-scale production capability.

The contract was tendered to encourage the Army to deal with companies that are not traditional defense subcontractors. Magic Leap, which is HoloLens' main competitor for the consumer market, also continued the contract. In early August, the military held meetings with 25 companies interested in participating, including the Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. companies, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. The cooperation of the technology industry with the US military and law enforcement has become increasingly tense. Over the past year, employees of companies such as Alphabet Inc., Google and Amazon.com Inc., have opposed government contracts.

Earlier this year, hundreds of Microsoft workers signed a petition criticizing the contract with the US Department of Immigration and Customs, which originally indicated that Microsoft included some of its software artificial intelligence. In October, a blog post allegedly written by Microsoft employees urged the company not to bid for a multi-billion dollar cloud computing deal. "Many Microsoft employees do not believe that what we build should be used to wage war," they wrote.

Later in the month, Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft, announced that the company would continue to sell software to the US military. Smith wrote that employees with ethical scruples with projects would be allowed to change jobs within the company.

"Artificial intelligence, augmented reality and other technologies raise new issues of paramount importance, including the ability of weapons to act autonomously. In discussing these issues with governments, we understood that no army in the world would wake up to discover that machines had started a war, "he wrote.

"But we can not expect these new developments to be handled wisely if technology players who know the technology better get out of the conversation."

Now read: Apple regains the most valuable company title on Microsoft