How the U.S. military plans to use HoloLens 2 to gain an edge in warfare

When HoloLens, Microsoft'southward wearable augmented reality (AR) figurer, debuted in 2022, the company demoed practical business applications, immersive games and more.

For the past 4 years, Microsoft has executed a methodic infrastructure-building deployment of AR computing as a hardware, software and services platform. This has resulted in the legitimization of HoloLens and AR computing as a applied computing solution within many sectors, including the U.Due south. military.

In 2022, Microsoft partnered with the U.S. military to utilize HoloLens to create wargame scenarios and provide soldiers with battlefield insights via AR simulations. Other military machine partnerships include ones with the Israeli military and Royal Australian Air Force, both of which studied how HoloLens could be used for planning and preparation. The Ukrainian military even tested HoloLens-enhanced helmets. Last twelvemonth Microsoft won a $480 one thousand thousand contract to provide the U.Southward. military with custom HoloLenses for utilise on the battlefield, to make U.S. soldiers more efficient on the battlefield and to improve infantry survival rates.

HoloLens could ensure U.Southward. 'overmatches' enemies

Microsoft'southward controversial HoloLens partnership with the U.S. military is meant to accost a problem. The unduly high charge per unit of infantry squad deaths is the specific problem HoloLens is beingness procured past the U.S. military machine to solve. According to Colonel Daniel Due south. Roper, a retired U.Due south. officer, firstline forces — soldiers, Marines, and special forces — make up a mere four pct of the military but have accounted for 90-percent of armed forces combat deaths since Globe War Two.

These groups are at high hazard because they engage in shut gainsay or "ground gainsay within line of sight of the enemy (within 600 meters), which is characterized by extreme violence." Additionally, Roper shared that enemy forces have closed the gap in their effectiveness on the battlefield. Thus, the U.South. military's goal is to equip its infantry forces with HoloLens so that they can overmatch the enemy. From Department of Defense memorandum Establishment of the Shut Gainsay Lethality Task Force (CCLTF):

The CCLTF will clarify and provide focused recommendation on Military Department and Military Service efforts to reach overmatch to ensure infantry squads are never in a off-white fight.

HoloLens is meant to back up the military'southward goals to improve close-gainsay effectiveness and survivability across the half-dozen post-obit domains:

sensing.
communication.
maneuvering.
attack.
survival.
sustainability.

The better to kill you with

According to (DoD) memorandum, Establishment of the Close Combat Lethality Job Force (CCLTF) the U.S. armed services plans to use HoloLens (AR) every bit part of a comprehensive platform to achieve increased lethality on the battleground. Roper adds:

The ultimate objective of the Integrated Visual Augmentation Organization (IVAS) (formerly Heads Up Display (HUD) three.0) program is to quickly develop, examination, and manufacture a single platform that Soldiers can utilise to Fight, Rehearse, and Train. This platform volition provide increased Lethality, Mobility, and Situational Sensation.

A military machine course HoloLens is expected to exist tailored for close-combat use and, based on capabilities outlined by the Army for contract bidders, may enable a range of "sensory" augmentation capabilities such as:

allowing soldiers to see through grit, smoke and fog.
facial recognition.
lie detection.
night vision.
thermal sensing.
vital-sign reading.
concussion monitoring.
hearing protection.

Combined with a network-continued communication organization, HoloLens-equipped U.S. troops may indeed outmatch enemy combatants. Ironically, HoloLens creator Alex Kipman oftentimes speaks of HoloLens as providing people with "superpowers." These military machine applications of the tech may be a dark representation of that vision.

Microsoft's CEO defends lethal fidelity

Humanity consistently exhibits a profound bent for finding (or forging) a path from using technology to assist to using information technology to harm. Gun pulverization went from fireworks to ballistic firearms; nuclear power went from free energy source to weapon of mass destruction; and HoloLens went from an amazing article of clothing computer for enterprise and potential future consumer utilise to enhancing a soldier'south ability to kill.

Hundreds of Microsoft employees are backing a motility to stop the battlefield applications of AR technology. From that petition:

The application of HoloLens within the [Integrated Visual Augmentation System] is designed to help people kill. It will be deployed on the battlefield and works by turning warfare into a simulated 'video game,' further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed.

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella recently doubled down on the company's partnership with the military, stating in an CNN Business interview:

We had the dialogue…deliberated… and made a principled conclusion that we're not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we relish.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks with CNN Business' Samuel Burke nigh Brexit, China and why the company remains committed to mixed reality. https://t.co/0mUUT9qPb6 film.twitter.com/jBLBcLlvBJ
— CNN Business (@CNNBusiness) February 25, 2022

This echoes Roper's stance:

The United states of america must exercise everything feasible to minimize the blood spilled by its front-line warriors fulfilling their indispensable role in defense of the nation.

The reality that the freedoms enjoyed in a commonwealth are often maintained by the high toll of war is a lamentable and difficult truth. Reconciling that truth with what technology should and shouldn't exist used for in warfare, what responsibilities companies have, leaves much to be discussed.

Do you believe HoloLens should be used on the battlefield? Chime-in in the comments.

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