Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook, is entering the world of defence technology with plans to produce artificial intelligence-powered mixed-reality headsets for the US military. The project, known as “EagleEye,” marks a significant collaboration between Meta and defence contractor Anduril Industries, the firm founded by Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey.
Anduril announced the partnership on 29 May, describing EagleEye as a headset that will provide American troops with real-time battlefield intelligence, combining virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and AI integration to deliver what it calls “enhanced perception” on combat missions.
The system will be powered by Lattice, Anduril’s AI command and control platform, designed to synthesise data from thousands of battlefield sources into a single operational picture. The goal is to allow troops to more intuitively control autonomous systems and make quicker, more informed tactical decisions in fast-moving conflict zones.
“This integration will transform how warfighters see, sense, and integrate battlefield information,” said Anduril in a statement, describing the headset as a breakthrough in immersive battlefield technology.
Commercial Tech, Military Applications
The headset development is privately funded and aims to adapt technology originally built for consumer use, particularly in gaming and social applications, for advanced military functions.
Meta has invested over $40 billion in VR and AR technologies since rebranding from Facebook and shifting its focus towards the metaverse in 2021. This partnership signals a deeper pivot towards defence applications for that same hardware.
The Vision: “Technomancers”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Palmer Luckey described the project as a step towards turning American soldiers into “technomancers”, a term that blends sci-fi fantasy with military futurism.
“We have been working together on a variety of things for a while now, but the first one to go public will be EagleEye,” said Luckey. “The system I hope will go on to become the next Soldier Borne Mission Command for the Army.”
The Soldier Borne Mission Command initiative is the US Army’s broader effort to integrate wearable tech and autonomous systems into frontline operations.
Microsoft Steps Back, Meta Steps In
Initially, the US Army awarded Microsoft the contract to develop augmented reality headsets using its HoloLens platform. However, after facing technical and usability challenges, Microsoft stepped back from hardware development in February 2024. Anduril took the lead, while Microsoft remained involved as the cloud service provider.
The new EagleEye headset is expected to replace the earlier programme with a more agile, AI-integrated solution for situational awareness and battlefield command.
Silicon Valley’s Deepening Military Ties
The Meta-Anduril collaboration is the latest in a series of moves that illustrate Silicon Valley’s growing partnership with the US defence sector.
In November 2023, Meta changed its acceptable use policies to allow the US military and defence contractors access to its LLaMA large language model for national security purposes.
In the same month, AI firm Anthropic granted the US Department of Defense access to its Claude 3 and 3.5 AI models for use on Palantir’s secure AI platform, hosted on Amazon Web Services.
Palantir itself partnered with Microsoft in August 2023 to provide AI-powered analytics and cloud services to defence and intelligence agencies.
