The US Army Will Test Hundreds Of Anduril & Rivet AR Headsets In The Field

The Anduril-Meta team and the Palantir-backed startup Rivet will each deliver hundreds of AR headsets to the US Army for testing as part of SBMC, the successor to IVAS.

If you missed it, back in May, Meta and Palmer Luckey’s defense firm Anduril announced that they were teaming up to build XR products for US and allied militaries, starting with the EagleEye AR/VR helmet.

Alongside the partnership announcement, the two companies also jointly submitted a white paper for the US Army’s SBMC (Soldier-Borne Mission Command) program, the successor to the IVAS program that Microsoft once led with a customized HoloLens before Anduril took it over.

Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Partners With Meta To Build Military XR Devices

Palmer Luckey’s Anduril is teaming up with Meta to build XR products for US and allied militaries, starting with the EagleEye AR/VR helmet.

That same month, a new startup called Rivet announced its own military-focused AR glasses, called Hard Spec. Rivet’s executives include key former Microsoft HoloLens staff, and the company is funded in part by Palantir, which is also a “strategic partner” for both Rivet and Anduril.

While Anduril describes EagleEye as an “integrated ballistic shell”, a protective helmet with all the electronics built in, Rivet’s Hard Spec is currently a thick pair of glasses, with a cable routed around an existing helmet.

Beyond the design and the obvious use of waveguides, Rivet hasn’t said much about the technical specifics of Hard Spec.

Now, the US Army has awarded Anduril $159 million, and Rivet $195 million, to build and deliver hundreds of SBMC prototypes for field testing.

Rivet has confirmed that its contract is for 470 “production representative” devices. Anduril, meanwhile, hasn’t disclosed exactly how many units its contract covers, though Breaking Defense reports that it’s also “hundreds”.

Ultimately, the SBMC program aims to augment the senses and cognition of all company-level-and-below US Army soldiers, and it could eventually be worth billions of dollars.

Previously reported potential use cases for IVAS, the predecessor of SBMC, included:

• overlaying icons on friendly units, objectives, threats, and points of interest
• built-in night vision & thermal view modes
• live picture-in-picture feeds from drones, including the Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) personal drone
• simulated weapons & enemies for training exercises
• scanning nearby people for signs of illness, such as a high temperature
• facial recognition for hostage rescue situations

Microsoft’s IVAS solution was plagued with issues. In 2022 the US Congress rejected further orders following “mission-affecting physical impairments” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea”. Previous evaluations had found reliability issues, with “essential functions” sometimes failing.

Soon, with hundreds of units set to be tested, we should know whether Anduril’s EagleEye and Rivet’s Hard Spec fare any better in the field.

Palmer Luckey Describes How Anduril’s EagleEye Helmet Will Give Soldiers Superhuman Senses

Palmer Luckey described how Anduril’s EagleEye helmet will give soldiers superhuman senses, describing it as “by far the best AR/VR/MR vision augmentation system that has ever been built”.

Palmer Luckey told DefenseScoop that the first “scaled delivery” of Anduril’s SBMC system should happen in 2027.