RIVET exhibited their Heads Up Display technology for the US Army’s Soldier Borne Mission Command program in the Wilcox Industries booth.
Through integration with WILCOX’s MANTIS mounting solution, the RIVET HUD becomes part of the FUSION CLAW-compatible system.
FUSION CLAW is a consortium of partners who have come together to provide the Army with an advanced headborne system to the US Army which is based in the issue IHPS helmet and provides integrated power and data.
Mounted to the front of the helmet is the sensor suite which contains an IR camera in the center and two CMOS low light color cameras on either side to offer binocular vision. It can be worn down in front of the eyes to put the cameras where the eyes are as seen here or up for observation. Either way, the data can be pushed to the eyewear.
What I really like about this option is that the key to viewing the Augmented Reality information is the RIVET Eyewear and those can be used with the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B), which is the current fused NVG/IR system worn by the Infantry and SOF.
While Anduril’s looks cooler I think this is the superior option – especially because of the backwards compatibility with existing analog NVDs.
It’s two different approaches each with advantages in their own respective ways.
This system is following in the piecemeal approach of “bolt on”. Like IVAS was its taking the existing helmet and adding the battery, processor, coms/hearing protection, Heads up display and Electoptical components on top. The advantage being the chassis of the system exists in army Inventory. The IHPS and this is using the existing mounting mechanism on it. However each module adds weight and has to be balanced. So it’s likely to be very heavy.
Anduril’s Eagle Eye is taking a wholistic approach. They partnered with Gentex who makes ballistic helmets and safety glasses. So they can get a purpose made shell and eye protection. OSI for electroptics so they can design the cameras specifically to fit on the shell. Qualcomm for communications, Meta goes back to Luckly’s origin story and the Occulus AR system. Anduril likely doing final integration and chaining it into Lattice their AI battle management system. Advantage they can streamline the systems as they are designed to fit together possibly right out of the box.
Disadvantage you have to buy the whole thing. As one.
I’m curious. Do you believe Gentex was involved in that helmet?
According to Anduril’s marketing they were part of the team. Even listed on the Page for it.
That’s not what I asked. Do you believe Gentex designed that helmet?
Gee, why would a company that produces helmets be involved in the design of a helmet? Truly a mystery.
So you believe that Gentex designed the Eagle Eye helmet?
Basically YES.
They did not.
Like most things you meet.