The Army doesn’t plan to take an “either/or” approach with its Enhanced Night Vision Goggle–Binocular (ENVG-B) and Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) programs, with the service’s secretary reaffirming an intent to continue moving ahead with both efforts.
“We don’t see it as an either/or, they each bring some different things to the table,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.
Wormuth’s remarks were in response to questions from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) pressing for specific details on the Army’s long-term plans for its night vision devices.
“I’m sure you probably won’t be surprised to know that I’m still focused on night vision devices. This is the second year in a row in which the [Army’s] budget [request] has included very little for procurement of night vision devices. And it makes it hard for me to understand what the Army’s plans are for the future,” Shaheen said.
The Army’s FY ‘25 budget request includes $100 million for procurement of 2,364 ENVG-B devices, built by L3Harris [LHX] and Elbit America, and $255.5 million to buy 3,162 Microsoft [MSFT]-produced IVAS headsets.
Shaheen, who has L3Harris based in her home state of New Hampshire, previously pressed Army officials on the lack of funding in the FY ‘23 budget request for ENVG-B, with Wormuth stating at the time the Army had procured the number of night vision devices “that we thought would meet our requirements” (Defense Daily, May 5 2022).
Army Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo told reporters previously it was “too early to say” whether the service considered IVAS as an eventual replacement for ENVG-B, noting that a planned night vision strategy would help assess the right mix of capabilities for the service’s enduring requirements (Defense Daily, July 25 2022).
After delivering ENVG-B devices for several years, to begin replacing legacy monocular night vision devices, the Army awarded L3Harris and Elbit America a full-rate production contract in late November 2023, which L3Harris noted could total nearly $1 billion over 10 years.
L3Harris said earlier this week it received an initial $256 million order under the ENVG-B full-rate production deal, with Elbit America also confirming to Defense Daily it received an initial delivery order at an undisclosed value (Defense Daily, April 15).
The Army last July received the first 20 prototypes of the new “1.2” upgraded version of IVAS from Microsoft, with Army Acquisition Chief Doug Bush noting at the time that the redesigned system would go through operational testing in the fall to gather critical feedback from soldiers on the adjustments to help inform the direction of the program (Defense Daily, July 27 2023).
Following an operational test with the initial 1.0 version of IVAS in June 2022, Army officials had detailed a plan to adjust the program’s timeline to address reliability, low-light sensor performance and form factor issues identified during the evaluation and in early January 2023 awarded Microsoft a $125 million deal to work on developing IVAS 1.2.
Ahead of the Army’s FY ‘25 budget rollout, officials noted the over 3,000 IVAS 1.2 systems the service aims to field will go into initial operational test and evaluation to inform future program plans, with the request also including $98 million further research and development efforts.
“[We] still [have] got to go through a lot of testing with the combat-capable version of it. That’s what those amounts are in there based on our hope for success there,” Bush said at the time. “So night vision, broadly, if you think of it that way, that’s an uptick from this year.”
Wormuth on Wednesday cited IVAS as a “pathfinder in wearable technology” for the Army, noting the service’s plans for further testing this year to inform next steps with the 1.2 version of the system.
“We’re continuing to work with Microsoft on [the IVAS] program. We have some additional testing coming up this year. We’re going to be doing a lot of testing on the 1.2 version. The last test that we ran looking at IVAS was much more successful. The soldier feedback we got was much better. The form factor for the headset was more comfortable. They weren’t having as much neck strain and I think the resolution for the vision piece was better,” Wormuth said.
Bush told reporters in September that initial feedback on IVAS 1.2 had been positive, citing the upgraded system’s new night vision camera component as an improvement that had “performed very well” during early testing (Defense Daily, Sept. 20 2023).