Microsoft providing electronics upgrade to US military helmets.

[Brooksie359]

9 hours ago, EjectedCasings said:

DOD's budget last year was ~750 billion, give or take. 22 Billion is a fairly large amount to spend on procurement on one type of thing, especially considering that there's only 120,000 planned to purchase.

Again they spend billions on alot of things especially R and D related so its not all that abnormal. Sure you could say that the cost the product might be high based on the amount that is being made but you have to realize that its lively alot of that cost is going into research and development of the actual helmet and making sure it works correctly. Even after you develope a final product you then have to go and figure out how to produce it. With the military being the only client to sell too you can't really rely on sales to recoup initial production setup cost. Anyways the cost is not alot in terms of DOD normal spending. I would say its probably average for a research and development contracts like this. 

[FakeATF]

8 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

22 billion sounds like a typo, maybe they meant 22 million? The unit cost of a Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier is 13 billion...

Probably, yeah.

[mousesnob]

Maybe it has Discord chat too

[sub68]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:54 AM, Doobeedoo said:

I'm sure many companies do colabs with mili though.

yeah samsung

 

[Shreyas1]

4 hours ago, CarlBar said:

 

Thats just the cost for the carrier though, not all the aircraft or ordnance that goes aboard it. This is also a long multi-year program with serious R&D. The latest CV's are modified Nimitz designs, not an all new from the ground up design AFAIK. The cost with this works out at around 184k per helmet, given that included hardware, software, and other developmental costs as well as ongoing support thats not bad, (A hellfire missiles comes out around 150k each, many of the bigger missiles come out at a mill apiece or more).

I was just using aircraft carriers to conceptualize it, But I still feel like a hundred thousand hellfire missiles would be a far better investment than this. So many of these projects end up going to waste, from what I've seen.

[dalekphalm]

15 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

22 billion sounds like a typo, maybe they meant 22 million? The unit cost of a Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier is 13 billion...

I doubt it's a typo. You have to consider what this is.

 

This isn't just 120,000 units. It's the R&D to make them field ready. It's also the basis for countless technology evolutions for US Soldier equipment.

4 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

I was just using aircraft carriers to conceptualize it, But I still feel like a hundred thousand hellfire missiles would be a far better investment than this. So many of these projects end up going to waste, from what I've seen.

Yes but that's a single missile, which can only be used once. This is a system that will potentially last years.

 

Yes the project might end up going to waste, but if it does, that $22 Billion probably won't have been spent in full.

[StDragon]

2 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

This is a system that will potentially last years.

Sounds like a challenge.

 

*some trooper curb-stomps the helmet* Yup, seems to be working...for now.

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, StDragon said:

Sounds like a challenge.

 

*some trooper curb-stomps the helmet* Yup, seems to be working...for now.

Haha well that's one out of 120,000 units.

 

And I'm talking about the system architecture and R&D not specific units anyway.

[CarlBar]

13 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Yes but that's a single missile, which can only be used once. This is a system that will potentially last years.

 

This. And the R&D thing. A lot of the cost here isn't the hardware, thats probably only a few times a good VR headset. The bulk is software and other infrastructure to support the hardware. And it's a program thats meant to last a long time, so this is funding it over many, many, many years.

[Lord Bloobus]

I imagine that these will be used heavily with drone warfare for realtime targeting/tracking/navigation and with the AR you could even integrate armor piercing/bunker buster rounds through cover with pinpoint accuracy through HUD aim assist. It could really change special forces operation effectiveness and highly accurate pinpoint strikes. Just imagine some of the thermal/IR imaging stuff you see in video games that appear in your HUD, this is the doorway to that. 

[CarlBar]

2 hours ago, Lord Bloobus said:

I imagine that these will be used heavily with drone warfare for realtime targeting/tracking/navigation and with the AR you could even integrate armor piercing/bunker buster rounds through cover with pinpoint accuracy through HUD aim assist. It could really change special forces operation effectiveness and highly accurate pinpoint strikes. Just imagine some of the thermal/IR imaging stuff you see in video games that appear in your HUD, this is the doorway to that. 

 

My understanding is it's supposed to provide a heads up display projected over the normal vision area. Like the HUD's fighter pilots have. Not a full on replacement for normal vision.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

 

My understanding is it's supposed to provide a heads up display projected over the normal vision area. Like the HUD's fighter pilots have. Not a full on replacement for normal vision.

Well with AR those are one and the same, potentially. If you have a transparent display that can augment your field of view with overlays, it can also, in theory, replace the entire view.

 

Though there are limitations there in terms of opacity.

 

There are so many freaking insane things that could be done with these, should they work the way they're being described. All the stuff you see in Scifi movies and in video games regarding HUDs, etc, could become a reality sooner rather than later.

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

There are so many freaking insane things that could be done with these, should they work the way they're being described. All the stuff you see in Scifi movies and in video games regarding HUDs, etc, could become a reality sooner rather than later.

• Weapon target locking
• Maps and other navigation
• Schematics for engineers and task list for grunts to construct
• Schematics for mechanics working on equipment with real-time overlay (including bolt torque settings)
• Medical use, specifically during triage and surgery.

Basically anything that's hand-free HUD.

[Lord Bloobus]

1 hour ago, CarlBar said:

 

My understanding is it's supposed to provide a heads up display projected over the normal vision area. Like the HUD's fighter pilots have. Not a full on replacement for normal vision.

That pretty much means there's a limitless amount of information you could beam over the AR interface. I'm talking straight up video game HUD. Think about all the stuff you have access to in video games through the HUD, this is the keystone for making them a reality. We have thermal, IR, regular cameras, satellite feeds , and other information that can be beamed around. You just need to be able to interface with it.

[CarlBar]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Though there are limitations there in terms of opacity.

 

This is what i was getting at. This is designed to overlay things on normal vision, it probably isn't capable of completely replacing it with an artificial view.

 

26 minutes ago, Lord Bloobus said:

I'm talking straight up video game HUD.

 

Where a looooong way away from being able to do that. It's one thing to have access to all that info, but providing the needed analysis and interpretation of that autonomously and in real time is still a good ways away. Eventually it will lead there, but there's a lot of ground in between. This is like comparing an old school muzzle loading cannon to a modern artillery piece. They work on the same basic principles, but everything has evolved enormously between the two to the point oly superficial comparisons can be drawn.

 

TLDR don't over-hype this as somthing it's not or as even close to something it's not. This is a long way from video game HUD with target markers, minmaps, built in Thermal/NV/e.t.c

[Lord Bloobus]

39 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

 

This is what i was getting at. This is designed to overlay things on normal vision, it probably isn't capable of completely replacing it with an artificial view.

 

 

Where a looooong way away from being able to do that. It's one thing to have access to all that info, but providing the needed analysis and interpretation of that autonomously and in real time is still a good ways away. Eventually it will lead there, but there's a lot of ground in between. This is like comparing an old school muzzle loading cannon to a modern artillery piece. They work on the same basic principles, but everything has evolved enormously between the two to the point oly superficial comparisons can be drawn.

 

TLDR don't over-hype this as somthing it's not or as even close to something it's not. This is a long way from video game HUD with target markers, minmaps, built in Thermal/NV/e.t.c

Having been in the military and used some of the tech, I'm aware. But this is a real step forward for it, we could definitely integrate this with specialty roles like JTAC for more accurate close fire or pinpoint strike missions. The drone and satellite tech exists already with all the features I listed, you'd just need route that data into the HUD for an operator to manipulate. It's the doorway that leads to the next phase of AR interfaces.

[Shreyas1]

On 4/8/2021 at 9:47 AM, StDragon said:

• Weapon target locking
• Maps and other navigation
• Schematics for engineers and task list for grunts to construct
• Schematics for mechanics working on equipment with real-time overlay (including bolt torque settings)
• Medical use, specifically during triage and surgery.

Basically anything that's hand-free HUD.

Damn, wonder if we will ever get something similar in the civilian market.