In Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality News
May 29, 2025 – Anduril Industries, a defense technology company founded by Palmer Luckey (the founder of Oculus VR), and Meta (which acquired Oculus VR in 2014) have announced a partnership to co-develop a range of integrated extended reality (XR) products designed to enhance situational awareness and improve human-machine interaction for U.S. military personnel.
According to the companies, the collaboration leverages more than a decade of investment in AI, hardware, and software from both sides, with the goal of delivering advanced capabilities without the use of taxpayer funding. The project aims to save the U.S. military billions of dollars by utilizing high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use.
The companies stated that the initiative arrives at a key inflection point in national security, as a new generation of computing built on artificial intelligence and body-worn devices begins to shape defense strategies. Through the partnership, Meta and Anduril seek to maintain U.S. leadership in emerging technologies while supporting national security objectives.
“Meta has spent the last decade building AI and AR to enable the computing platform of the future,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta. “We’re proud to partner with Anduril to help bring these technologies to the American servicemembers that protect our interests at home and abroad.”
Palmer Luckey, Founder of Anduril, added: “I am glad to be working with Meta once again. Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that.”
Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, CTO of Meta, noted: “Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life.”
Expanding XR Integration in Defense
As part of the effort, the jointly developed XR solutions will integrate with Anduril’s Lattice platform, an AI-enabled command and control system that synthesizes real-time battlefield intelligence from thousands of data sources. Through role-specific AR and VR interfaces, the new tools are intended to provide warfighters with intuitive access to Lattice’s analytics and insights, supporting faster and more informed decision-making in operational settings.
For Meta, the partnership marks a significant expansion in U.S. government adoption of its immersive technologies. The company continues to build on its Reality Labs initiatives, alongside support for the use of its open-source Llama AI models in national security applications among U.S. and allied partners.
The two companies have also submitted a joint white paper for SBMC Next (formerly IVAS Next), a program aimed at evolving the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System. Following the transfer of the original IVAS contract from Microsoft to Anduril, the company has reported progress in shifting IVAS toward a ‘Soldier-Borne Mission Command’ solution. As part of this work, Anduril stated that it has significantly shortened software update timelines from 180 days to under 18 hours, and that Lattice-integrated IVAS headsets are currently undergoing testing.
Image credit: Anduril Industries
About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.