Category: War fighting
Anduril’s new Army helmets have ‘X-ray’ vision — how is that possible?
The incoming equipment for U.S. military members is so advanced that it not only looks like a video game but seems like the user is cheating.
The standard helmet for the Army has remained largely the same in the last few decades, save for key updates in blunt force protection. While there may have been additions that allow for microphones and night-vision attachments, nothing has even come close to what is on the horizon.
‘Think of it almost like a hive mind.’
Leaning more toward what a fighter pilot’s helmet is capable of, the new Eagle Eye warfighter helmet from Anduril Industries uses technology that is pretty hard to explain.
The company recently released a stunning display that looks like the first-person view of a video game. Providing a directional map in the bottom corner of the soldier’s view, the optics are immediately recognizable to anyone who has played a video game of that genre; a young man in the Army probably has.
A heads-up display reveals nearby enemies with a red blip, and the soldier digitally selects a tactical strike with a drone on an encroaching vehicle in seconds, all while chatting with other soldiers on his team.
The new helmets make this possible by using a “hive mind” technology that connects soldiers on the battlefield with drones, cameras, surveillance, and their squad mates on the ground; the results are fairly shocking.
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“The ability to have night vision, thermal vision, but also the ability to see where all the bad guys are, see where all the good guys are by fusing everyone’s view together. Think of it almost like a hive mind,” inventor Palmer Luckey recently told Joe Rogan.
“If I’m able to see something, you should be able to see it. If a drone can see it, you should be able to see it. Even if it’s on the other side of a building, you should be able to see it and effectively have X-ray vision. And I should be able to command and control all these other systems using this heads-up display interface,” Luckey continued.
Using “intelligence sensors,” the Eagle Eye helmets can detect cellphone signals, radio signals, and even where gunshots were fired, revealing their distance from the soldier.
The Anduril CEO showed Rogan that with a pair of connected augmented reality glasses, the soldier can see all the data being captured by the helmet and show it in real time to the user. This, in conjunction with any drones, cameras, or other soldiers wearing the tech, combine to form a network of data that Anduril says gives America the advantage in an “unfair fight.”
What this results in is the soldier being able to see everything at once, effectively seeing through walls or over hills; if anyone or anything on his team can see it, so can the individual.
Luckey showed off a sample video where a soldier could use the X-ray vision to track his allies through a sea can while engaging enemies, displaying them as skeletal-like figures. Once the allies saw the enemy, the user could see them through a wall too.
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Additionally, the helmets not only have thermal sensors, night-vision censors, and hearing protection, they also have sound amplification. Tactical technology allows the wearer to hone in on sounds coming from a certain direction, while canceling out noise from other directions to better focus on the target.
Anduril boasts that it used no taxpayer dollars to create Eagle Eye and is certainly pushing advanced military technology in the right direction.
The advancements come at the same time the company has revealed its anti-drone technology, in the form of a mobile kit for soldiers on the ground. Drone strikes have become an often-used instant-casualty tactic in the Russia-Ukraine war and are a constant threat for those operating without cover.
These products show that Luckey has put a very real focus on protecting the individual American fighter in attempt to prevent loss of life.
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