Trump donor to help build sci-fi ‘smart goggles’ for the US army

A defence technology start-up led by 32-year-old billionaire and Republican Party donor Palmer Luckey has signed a deal with the US Army to provide futuristic combat goggles as part of a $22bn (£17bn) project.

Anduril, which develops military drones and artificial intelligence software, will work with Microsoft to develop the new headsets, based on augmented reality technology where virtual images are projected over the real world.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System is designed to act as a soldier’s heads-up display, providing live battlefield data and night vision capabilities.

The system will be attached to a helmet but can be flipped up and down while in the field. Using Anduril’s “Lattice” software, the headsets will be able to provide information on “real-time threats across the battlespace”, such as incoming drones or missiles.

The project, which has been in development since 2018, has already gone through several versions of the goggles, with soldiers previously complaining the device was too heavy and could lead to headaches and nausea.

Microsoft secured a leading role on the programme in 2021. It previously developed the Hololens virtual reality headset. The goggles contract could ultimately be worth up to $22bn.

The project will now also involve Mr Luckey’s start-up, Anduril, which is valued at $14bn and backed by Peter Thiel, a prominent Silicon Valley investor and backer of Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.

“This is Anduril’s bread and butter, and we’ve been building the backbone for this for years,” Mr Luckey said.

“This project is my top priority at Anduril, and it has been for some time now. It’s one of the Army’s most critical programs being fielded in the near future, with the goal of getting the right data to the right people at the right time.”

In an interview with Wired, he said planned heads-up display was a “classic sci-fi concept”, inspired by novels such as the 1950s book Starship Troopers.

He added the aim of such a headset would be to give soldiers “the vision that Superman has, and then some, and make them more lethal”.

Mr Luckey, a former Facebook executive, is known for founding Oculus, the virtual reality company that was snapped up by Mark Zuckerberg in 2014.

As a teenager, Mr Luckey built a series of prototypes for his “Oculus Rift” headset from scratch, relying on crowdfunding, with the company ultimately sold to Mr Zuckerberg’s Facebook for $2bn.

The eccentric entrepreneur, who typically wears Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops in the otherwise conservative defence industry, is a prominent Republican Party supporter and donor.

He has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and political groups, and earlier this year said: “My big league support for Donald Trump is no secret.”

His politics led to clashes during his time at Facebook, after Mr Luckey donated funds to an anti-Hillary Clinton campaign. He was later ousted from Facebook in 2017, although the company has repeatedly insisted he was not fired because of his political views.

Mr Luckey founded Anduril, a defence company named after a sword from The Lord of the Rings, after leaving Facebook.

Anduril has since developed Ghost, a man-portable drone designed to provide reconnaissance that has been used by Ukraine’s armed forces.

It is also in the process of developing Barracuda, a flying drone designed to deliver up to a 100lb missile while operating in a swarm designed to overload air defences.

Last year, it signed a £17m deal with the UK’s Ministry of Defence to develop counter-drone technology for RAF bases.