Anduril and Meta team up to build military AR/VR devices

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Anduril and Meta have announced a new partnership to create advanced tech devices for the US military, marking a surprising and full-circle moment for Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of both Oculus and Anduril.

This collaboration focuses on developing extended reality (XR) devices, a mix of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, as part of the US Army’s Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) Next program. 

This program was previously called IVAS, a massive $22 billion military project that originally went to Microsoft in 2018. 

The goal was to create futuristic smart glasses for soldiers, similar to Microsoft’s HoloLens.

However, after years of setbacks, the Army removed Microsoft from leading the project earlier this year and handed the reins to Anduril. 

Microsoft will still be involved, but only by providing cloud services. 

Now, the Army wants multiple companies working on these high-tech glasses, and Meta is joining the effort by partnering with Anduril.

The new military devices will combine Meta’s advanced AR/VR tech from its Reality Labs with Anduril’s battlefield software, called Lattice. 

They’ll also use Meta’s Llama AI, aiming to give soldiers real-time updates on their surroundings through a special digital display, kind of like a video game-style interface for real-life combat.

The project is being called EagleEye, a name Luckey originally used for his dream headset design years ago. 

Although he was talked out of building it first by investors, he’s now bringing the idea to life with Meta’s help.

This partnership is especially meaningful for Luckey, who was fired from Facebook in 2017 after political controversy, despite being the founder of Oculus. 

Now, years later, he’s back working with Meta on tech, and even launched a Facebook page for Anduril to mark the moment.

The two tech giants, one from the consumer world and one from defense, are joining forces to equip soldiers with powerful new battlefield tools.

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