The company announced a new round of layoffs on Monday and said the affected jobs primarily revolve around engineering development for enterprise and commercial.
“But if [IVAS] does not work, then I think we would have to take a very hard look at whether we continue down that path or use that money for other critical aspects of our night-vision strategy,” US Army Futures Command head Gen. James Rainey said today.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
The service wants to begin a new Multi-Domain Artillery Cannon System prototyping initiative, to slow down PrSM Inc 2 production and to launch IVAS Next.
The Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) platform joins the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) on the budget cutting room floor for America's largest service.
“The [user assessment’s] purpose is to measure system performance to ensure the phase 2 IVAS 1.2 prototype systems continue to meet design objectives,” said Program Executive Office Soldier spokesperson David Patterson.
In 2023, the US Army eyed ways to better support troops in the Indo-Pacific region, and ways to restructure its formations for the future.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
After positive feedback on newest version, Army also greenlit production of an additional 280 IVAS 1.2 units and 11 Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer kits with a $95 million check.
The Army is trying to mitigate "occlusion" problems for soldiers using Microsoft's high-priced augmented reality system to spawn (and then kill) virtual "enemies" behind real objects.
The Army's acquisition chief called the 1.2 redesign the “right direction” but said “were it not to work out, we’d likely just do a new competition, perhaps with somewhat different requirements.”
President of Microsoft Federal Rick Wagner has "decided to leave the company," a spokesman confirmed to Breaking Defense.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
The watchdog's report is unsparing in outlining the cost increases and schedule delays for a majority of Defense Department programs.
Two key program managers tell Breaking Defense the future pathway for the program - and reveal that the Army has not fielded a single 1.0 version of the heads-up display because it doesn't have the funding and hasn’t decided where those devices should be sent.
The service now plans to field the IVAS 1.0 in August, two years later than initially expected, while also working with the company on a hardware redesign to alleviate physical problems soldiers experience while wearing the device for newer versions.
With all eyes on Ukraine this year, several existing Army weapon lines received renewed interest this year.