Microsoft won the bid for the US Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a $480 million contract for a helmet-mounted augmented reality display to be fielded by the US Army over the next two years.

The initial 2,500-unit contract runs through 2020 and may be the first Army project to test AR hardware in live combat scenarios. An important stipulation of the contract contest was demonstrable manufacturing capacity, a prerequisite to a potential order of 100,000 finished IVAS units, which would effectively double the number of HoloLens headsets in worldwide use.

The initial two-year order is a development contract that will primarily lead to huge advances for the HoloLens platform, overall and ultimately serving to benefit all future customers. A major part of the Army’s requirements include integrated night-and-thermal vision modes along with biometric feedback, vital signs monitoring, and hearing protection. Speculation surrounding associated US military tech projects suggests point-of-aim tracking and communications system integration also may come into play.

The stated intention of the project, to “increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy,” according to the Army brief, has raised eyebrows. In October, Microsoft employees protested the company’s involvement in cloud computing and AI bids for the US government, which prompted company President Brad Smith to defend the contracts in a recent interview:

“When it comes to technology to defend the country, we stand on the side of defending the country. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be silent… We’ve sued the US Government over surveillance issues, we’ve sued the government over DACA… There need to be limits in what governments do…”

The IVAS contract win came two weeks later and with increasing lethality in the verbiage of the contract, it remains to be seen how the HoloLens team will move forward with development. As part of Microsoft’s response to employee protests, the company promised to move personnel off projects that raised ethical or moral qualms. However, the possible strength of an advanced AR system could be the far less sinister enhancement to decision making implied by the Army’s design prompt, to decrease collateral damage that has plagued western militaries for decades.