Congress says the Army cant spend $400 million buying Microsoft HoloLens headsets

Congress has denied the Army’s request to buy up to 6,900 headsets based on Microsoft’s HoloLens technology, according to a report from Bloomberg. The military was apparently asking for around $400 million — instead, it’s getting around a tenth of that to go toward improving the system, as previous versions reportedly caused “mission-affecting physical impairments,” such as headaches and nausea during tests.

It was those results that reportedly led to the budget for new headsets, called Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems or IVAS by the Army, not being included in the government’s $1.75 trillion spending bill. The Army says it plans to fix those, though, with a version 1.2 that will include “a new form factor” meant to address the...

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