Microsoft Wins $480 Million Contract to Supply Hololens to U.S. Army

[Aioeyu]

If the AR training gets implemented anything like VR training was when I served, medically discharged in 2014, it'jll justbe a huge waste of time and money. Using it to augment combat capabilities could be really cool, but in my experience serving years in the army and more as a contractor, stuff like this seldom works out how we envision or even as intended. The VR and AR training I was involved in was worse than useless, because it took time away from real training, and money away from training programs that actually worked. The cost savings for AR training sound great on paper, but seldom work out in reality.

I hope this pans out, as training for our armed forces is woefully inadequate. The strange fantasy of military life most civilians have is VERY different than the reality of the profession of soldiering. Further, the convoluted world of government contracting is a whole other level of wasteful that defies logic, unless your logic is how to perpetually suck on the tit of Uncle Sam.

 

[Verge]

480 million...

This has to be the cheapest defense contract ever awarded.

 

[RaxusCraxurFace]

I imagine these will be special milspec versions that work in extreme cold and heat and maybe more vibration resistant than consumer grade (I hope)

You would think so, but after a few years in the army I realized I preferred consumer grade on many things.

 

[seanreisk]

You would think so, but after a few years in the army I realized I preferred consumer grade on many things.

Like tents...

Or boots (although an old pair of broken-in black combat boots is pretty awesome).

Or hamburgers. Toilet paper. Condoms (you think I'm joking). Coffee.


However, a big old nasty Army fry-up breakfast with hamburger gravy poured over everything is still kind of sublime.