“Soldiers hit fewer targets and engaged targets more slowly with IVAS 1.0 than with their current equipment on the buddy team live fire range.

The Army’s futuristic new goggles actually make soldiers less lethal, Pentagon weapons tester says

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2023-01-25 16:30:10

“Soldiers hit fewer targets and engaged targets more slowly with IVAS 1.0 than with their current equipment on the buddy team live fire range."

By Jared Keller | Published Jan 24, 2023 11:53 AM

The Army wanted its new futuristic do-it-all goggles to make soldiers more lethal by improving their communications, situational awareness, and marksmanship capabilities, all in one high-tech package. But a new assessment from the Defense Department’s top weapons tester suggests that the cumbersome new system is actually making soldiers worse at their jobs — and soldiers absolutely hate it.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) 1.0 was subjected to an operational demonstration during May and June of last year “to support a production and rapid fielding decision,” according to the Pentagon’s Directors of Operational Testing & Evaluation’s (DOT&E) fiscal year 2022 assessment of DoD weapons systems.

The results of the demonstration weren’t pretty. Not only did the system not “demonstrate improvements” to deficiencies identified during previous hands-on testing from active-duty soldiers, but the infantry company that tested the system “was more successful accomplishing their operational missions with their current equipment than with IVAS 1.0,” according to the DOT&E assessment. 

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