What’s the story?
Distance Technologies has launched its Field Operator HUD (FOH), a set of head-mounted AR goggles designed to provide visual intelligence for military vehicle operators.
Why it matters
The FOH enables vehicle operators to maintain situational awareness by fusing multiple data streams into a single AR view, and could ultimately help to enhance survivability in complex land combat scenarios.
The bigger picture
Distance joins a competitive field of defense AR providers, alongside companies like Anduril and Rivet, as the industry moves toward AI-enhanced soldier-borne mission control systems.
In Augmented Reality News
January 21, 2025 – Distance Technologies, a developer of glasses-free, AI-enhanced visual augmentation solutions for defense applications, has this week announced the launch of its Field Operator HUD (FOH). The system is a head-mounted, always-on visual intelligence device designed for military vehicle operators, ranging from light utility vehicles to main battle tanks.
Distance stated that the FOH integrates its patented hardware with a sovereign HUD operating system and AI-assisted data processing. According to the company, the system is the first heads-up display (HUD) built to combine command and control (C2) with enhanced visual perception and multiple sensor inputs in complex land combat environments. Utilizing computational see-through optics that work with existing platforms, such as the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), the device provides augmented situational awareness to vehicle operators.
Designed to reduce cognitive visual burden, the system integrates mission-critical data from vehicle and soldier sensors to deliver a unified and shared operational picture.
According to Distance, key features and advantages of the FOH include:
- Tactical mobility and system interoperability – Employs lightweight, high-definition computational augmented reality (AR) optics with integration across vehicle and soldier systems to maintain connectivity in GPS-denied environments.
- Always-on visual intelligence – Provides continuous situational awareness for mounted and dismounted operators, integrating real-time Blue Force Tracking, C4ISR data, and tactical systems such as ATAK.
- Multi-spectral see-through vision – Integrates with the vehicle’s sensor suite to provide multi-spectral and thermal overlay capabilities, delivering a “see-through” perception of the operational environment via data sensor fusion.
- Automated detection and tracking – Uses AI to fuse and prioritize inputs from the full spectral sensor suite, automatically tracking objects of interest to reduce cognitive load.
- Unmanned systems integration – Supports the command and control of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) through integrated AI analytics or direct video and geospatial data feeds. Concurrent access for multiple operators supports shared situational awareness.
- Universal NVG integration – Engineered for physical integration with standard-issue night vision goggles (NVGs), retrofitting legacy analog systems with digital tactical overlays.
“The Distance Field Operator HUD is the sovereign Soldier Borne Mission Control available to all NATO and allied forces, offering tactical crews a wearable AR system that is as light as it is lethal,” said Urho Konttori, CEO and co-founder of Distance Technologies. “By delivering unrivaled visual acuity and seamless sensor fusion, we are giving allied forces the ability to see through the fog of war and make split-second decisions that save lives.”
Following successful field trials in the UK and Finland, the FOH is expected to be available for immediate field trial use by NATO defense forces and allied nations by the end of Q1 2026. Further availability through international defense prime contractors is expected in 2027.
To find out more about Distance Technologies and its visual augmentation solutions, visit the company’s website.
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix, where he has spent years immersed in the XR ecosystem, tracking its evolution from early prototypes to the technologies shaping the future of human experience. While primarily covering the latest AR and VR news, his interests extend to the wider world of human augmentation, from AI and robotics to haptics, wearables, and brain–computer interfaces.