Tilannetietoisuus laajenee (HoloLens)

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Working toward a future when cloud services, squad radios, and necessary combat information can be combined and visualized on a set of futuristic goggles, Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team are rehearsing combat missions under sweltering 100 degree-plus heat, high humidity, and even a few thunderstorms.

According to Program Executive Office Soldier, the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) may one day integrate next-generation 24/7 situational awareness tools and high-resolution digital sensors to deliver a single platform that improves Soldier sensing, decision making, target acquisition, and target engagement.

U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said during her first looks at IVAS: “Remember early satellite phones from the 1980s that wealthy people had in their cars? They were big and clunky and now we have iPhones. It took us some time to get there.”

Capt. Roberto Huie, commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), 82nd Airborne Division, said seeing the location of all his Soldiers wearing the system is a huge benefit. “Such a system will significantly improve reaction time for unit leaders who make decisions under the stress of battle,” he said.

The Opposing Force Commander, Capt. Phillip Johnston of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), 82nd Airborne Division, said the test gave him an opportunity to train his company, with nine separate missions to plan, rehearse and execute.

“We trained at a level of we have not seen previously in the Army,” he said. “It was invaluable to have an outside look into the Company from the Operational Test Command without having the pressure of graded evaluations that normally come with training events.”

US 82nd Airborne troops test US Army next-generation combat goggle | weapons defence industry military technology UK | analysis focus army defence military industry army

US 82nd Airborne troops test US Army next-generation combat goggle

www.armyrecognition.com

 

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On a mid-August afternoon in central Texas, Soldiers in combat uniform gather together, preparing to engage in realistic battlefield training. With temperatures outside approaching the high 90s, one might expect the upcoming drill, situated amid a flat and dusty expanse at Fort Hood, to verge on the sweltering. Maureena Thompson, Army Futures Command, reports.

Instead, this particular group of Soldiers is training inside the walls of the post’s Close Combat Tactical Training Center, surrounded by the steady hum of computers and a reliable flow of cool air conditioning.

The center, which facilitates state-of-the-art virtual collective training for warfighters, is hosting approximately 150 Soldiers from Fort Bliss, Texas and Fort Carson, Colorado, this month as part of an operational assessment led by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command.

The purpose of the assessment is to understand how Soldiers interact with the newest software and hardware iterations of the Army’s Synthetic Training Environment, or STE, a capability that blends virtual, live and collective training elements to produce an immersive experience that is location-agile and minimizes use of real firepower and other typically costly, one-time-use training resources.

Soldier insights drive US Army development of mixed-reality training system | weapons defence industry military technology UK | analysis focus army defence military industry army

Soldier insights drive US Army development of mixed-reality training system

www.armyrecognition.com

Undergoing analysis at the event are two elements of the broader STE, the Information System, shortened STE-IS, and the Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer, or RVCT.

The STE-IS is an intelligent suite of training simulation and management software that supports intuitive access and simultaneous training at multiple locations. The STE-IS also encompasses One World Terrain, a 3D mapping dataset that allows training coordinators to integrate actual terrain imagery from around the globe.

The RVCT is a highly adaptable hardware system that connects to the STE-IS to activate collective, mixed-reality training scenarios. The RVCT consists of high-tech, interactive equipment — including a heads-up display, high-resolution monitor and representational controllers — that enables Soldiers, squads, platoons and companies to navigate exercises using actual and computer-generated movements.

The STE-IS-powered family of RVCT systems is capable of replicating key aviation and ground platforms; the Fort Hood event is focused on RVCT ground models that can replicate Abrams, Bradley and Stryker fighting vehicles, as well as dismounted infantry.

Beyond testing out the new equipment, Soldiers are providing critical feedback and data to STE development teams on the utility of the existing software and hardware and how it could be tweaked to portray in-person combat with greater realism.

 

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The Army recently received its first bundle of “mixed reality” goggles that the branch hopes can redefine individual soldier and squad warfighting.

Those 5,000 goggles are part of a not-yet-released Army fielding plan for the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, which is a combined night vision and thermal device with the ability to feed navigation, position, weapon’s sight views and an array of other data to the user.

Brig. Gen. Christopher Schneider, commander of Program Executive Office-Soldier, told Army Times that the device will help the Army get to the tactical edge of computing and situational awareness at the branch’s lowest echelons.

The $22 billion program has had its delays. And a Defense Department Inspector General audit released in April recommended more soldier input into the device’s development.

Schneider’s predecessor, Maj. Gen. Anthony Potts, told Army Times last year that testing had shown some software reliability problems, image distortion and humidity issues within the device.

Army receives first batch of mixed reality goggles, more work ahead

Despite delays, IVAS developers continue to improve the device.

www.defensenews.com

Pre-existing Army technology includes the Heads-Up Display, or HUD. That’s an effort to get soldiers looking out on the battlefield and not requiring them to look down at a smartphone, tablet or other type of device, a current problem for those using the Nett Warrior and Army Tactical Awareness Kit, or ATAK.

In line with the HUD development is the Family of Weapons Sights-Individual, or FWS-I. That technology started with cabling and has now gone wireless. It allows the user to flip between a goggle view, weapon sight view or a picture-in-picture option to see both while using a rifle or carbine.

It lets soldiers poke a weapon around a corner or over a bunker to see what they are shooting at. It can even let soldiers literally shoot from the hip while seeing their target in their goggle view.

By using those pieces of Army tech combined with a low-light sensor and thermal vision, soldiers can see both at night and through obscurants such as dust, smoke and fog.

 

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US soldiers using Microsoft Corp.’s new goggles in their latest field test suffered “mission-affecting physical impairments” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea, according to a summary of the exercise compiled by the Pentagon’s testing office.

More than 80% of those who experienced discomfort had symptoms after less than three hours using the customized version of Microsoft’s HoloLens goggles, Nickolas Guertin, director of Operation Test and Evaluation, said in a summary for Army and Defense Department officials. He said the system also is still experiencing too many failures of essential functions.

The problems found in the testing in May and June were outlined in a 79-page report this month. The Army marked it “Controlled Unclassified Information” to prevent public distribution, but Bloomberg News obtained a summary.

Despite the device’s flaws, Guertin doesn’t deem it a lost cause. He recommended that the Army “prioritize improvements” before widespread deployment to reduce the “physical discomfort of users.” He said improvements are also needed to the goggle’s low-light sensors, display clarity, field of vision and poor reliability of some essential functions.

On the positive side: The latest model’s reliability has improved for a key metric -- the mean time between failures that render the whole system inoperable, according to the report. Leaders and soldiers also reported that the latest version “enhanced navigation and coordination of unit movements,” Guertin wrote.

Microsoft’s Army Goggles Left US Soldiers With Nausea, Headaches in Test - BNN Bloomberg

US soldiers using Microsoft Corp.’s new goggles in their latest field test suffered “mission-affecting physical impairments” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea, according to a summary of the exercise compiled by the Pentagon’s testing office.

www.bnnbloomberg.ca

 

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Microsoft Job Cuts Hit HoloLens Unit After Setback on Army Goggles

Microsoft Corp., which is eliminating 10,000 jobs and trimming some of its hardware lineup, will reduce its HoloLens goggles business as it scales back work on a headset for the US Army that Congress declined to fund this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

www.bloomberg.com