US military is not allowed by Congress to buy new HoloLens glasses for the time being

The US military is not allowed to buy new HoloLens glasses this year. Congress does not want to allocate money for this, because tests would show that the glasses have “physical side effects” that can affect missions, including headaches, eye strain and nausea.

The plan was to purchase 6,900 HoloLens glasses, for which the military needed $400 million. However, Congress, which had to approve this plan, does not want to make this money available. Seventy soldiers tested the goggles last year, simulating three 72-hour scenarios. In addition, the soldiers suffered from the physical side effects. More than 80 percent of soldiers who experienced side effects experienced them after less than three hours of using the HoloLens.

The glasses would also have too many malfunctions. Congress has therefore made $40 million available to make a new version of the glasses, confirms the military to Bloomberg. For example, the new version should have a better weight distribution for greater comfort and with software improvements, the glasses should be easier to read and consume less energy. It army made earlier this year announced to order an improved 1.2 version, which should solve these problems. The military is paying $125 million for this order.

The military expects to spend $21.9 billion in a decade on about 121,000 HoloLens glasses. The first 5000 glasses have already been ordered and will soon be used for training purposes. The glasses are a modified version of Microsoft’s HoloLens AR glasses and should help soldiers see in the dark, among other things.