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Anduril and Meta are partnering to develop augmented-reality glasses for the Army’s Soldier Borne Mission Command program while Anduril also self-funds an EagleEye helmet-headset. Backed by a $159 million prototype award, the effort integrates Anduril’s Lattice software, drone and sensor feeds, and large language models (Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, Anthropic’s Claude) to enable voice and eye-tracking tasking of drones and contextual overlays. Projects face years-long timelines, non-Chinese supply-chain rules, and human factors hurdles as designers strive to prevent information overload and preserve human approval for lethal actions. The work aligns with a broader Army push to weave Lattice into battlefield systems.
AR combat glasses could reshape soldier workflows by fusing sensor, drone and LLM outputs into real-time decision aids, affecting software, hardware and integration work for defense tech teams. Tech professionals must plan for constrained supply chains, human factors design, and secure multi-vendor AI integration in high-stakes environments.
Dossier last updated: 2026-05-19 12:52:25
A jury dismissed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI on statute-of-limitations grounds, leaving unresolved whether OpenAI breached its original nonprofit mission; the timing of OpenAI’s shift toward commercial models—OpenAI says signs appeared as early as 2017, Musk claims he learned of them in 2022—remains disputed. Defense contractor Anduril and Meta are prototyping AR smart glasses for the military that could enable drone strikes via eye-tracking and voice commands, highlighting ethical and operational risks of weaponized wearables. At Google I/O, Google aims to reclaim ground in foundation models and developer coding tools after lagging behind OpenAI and Anthropic, while broader AI work on “world models” from DeepMind and new startups seeks to give AI better physical understanding. These developments matter for AI governance, defense tech, and platform competition.
Anduril is developing augmented-reality headsets for the US military in partnership with Meta and via its own self-funded EagleEye helmet, aiming to let soldiers control drones and issue complex commands through voice, eye-tracking and LLMs. The company won a $159 million prototype contract for the Army’s Soldier Born Mission Command (SBMC) program and plans to run its AI and sensor fusion on its Lattice software, which the Army is spending to integrate across systems. Prototypes are years from scale—production decisions may not come until 2028—and face usability, supply-chain and ethical hurdles as soldiers risk information overload and chains of command remain central to lethal actions.
Anduril is developing augmented-reality headsets with Meta for the Army’s Soldier Born Mission Command (SBMC) program and separately building its own EagleEye helmet-headset combo, aiming to fuse soldier and drone awareness and let troops issue commands by voice or eye-tracking. Anduril won a $159 million SBMC prototyping contract; its Lattice software would integrate sensor and drone data, while large language models (Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, Anthropic’s Claude) translate natural-language orders into actions. Prototypes are years from scale testing and must use non-Chinese supply chains; designers emphasize avoiding information overload and preserving command approval, with strikes or other multi-step tasks requiring human oversight.
Anduril and Meta are co-developing augmented-reality combat glasses for the Army, with Anduril also self-funding a separate helmet/headset called EagleEye. Anduril won a $159 million prototype contract for the Soldier Born Mission Command (SBMC) program and envisions soldiers using voice, eye-tracking and LLMs (tests include Gemini, Llama and Claude) to task drones, view overlays (maps, drone positions, target recognition) and carry out multi-step missions via its Lattice software. The projects face years-long timelines, supply-chain constraints to avoid Chinese suppliers, and human factors challenges: soldiers may reject systems that add cognitive load. The work ties into a broader $20 billion Army effort to integrate Lattice across its infrastructure.