Army tests next-gen fighting goggles for ground troops

American combat troops once boasted of “owning the night” because U.S. night vision technology easily surpassed that of other countries. But two decades worth of sustained conflict across the Middle East has meant a night vision parity with most other first-world military forces.

Now meet IVAS - the Integrated Visual Augmentation System - which the Pentagon says is the next generation in combat vision wear for military personnel. Using a set of goggles similar in size to those skiers use, Army and Marine Corps troops may eventually have their own high-tech “heads up display” like fighter pilots.

“It leverages networked information sharing and mixed and augmented reality technologies,” Army officials said.

IVAS was one of Army Futures Command’s signature modernization efforts. It was recently tested in the field by a group of Army soldiers and Marines at Fort Pickett, Va. Lt. Nicholas Christopher from the 82nd Airborne Division said the IVAS goggles provide him with critical information now literally in front of his face.

“I can see where my entire platoon is projected on a map and for me as a platoon leader that’s amazing,” Lt. Christopher said. “There is a lot of guesswork that goes out the window. There’s a lot of verbal communication over radios that I don’t have to do anymore.”

Brig. Gen. David Hodne, the Army’s chief of infantry, said having a technological advantage over any possible adversary has always been part of the service’s doctrine.

“In order to restore overmatch, we must restore lethality and lethality means we can see, designate and move quickly through hours of limited visibility,” Gen. Hodne said. “In an environment where we share the night, the folks who can move fast, decide faster and think faster are the ones who had the advantage on today’s and tomorrow’s battlefields.”

Having actual soldiers involved in the design process of IVAS has made it possible for the Army to reduce the traditional 10 year acquisitions timeline to about 28 months, officials said.

Army Staff Sgt. Kaleb Kester, a combat veteran with 12 years spent in the Army, saw “tremendous potential” in an IVAS system no harder to use than a cell phone.

“Why haven’t we always been doing it this way?” Staff Sgt. Kester asked. “This is the way it should always be.”

The program is on track to deliver the first IVAS system in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, officials said.