Microsoft won a deal to supply the US Army with AR headsets based on its HoloLens product, in an agreement reportedly worth just shy of $22 billion over ten years.

In a blog, the company said it would work with the US Army on the production phase of an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) programme, in a move to swiftly bring next-generation technology to the battlefield.

The IVAS headset will be based on HoloLens and augmented by Microsoft’s Azure cloud services, designed to “deliver a platform to keep soldiers safer and make them more effective”, the software giant explained.

Microsoft added the IVAS programme aims to deliver enhanced “situational awareness, enabling information sharing and decision-making in a variety of scenarios”.

Financial Times reported a representative of the software company said the deal involved supply of at least 120,000 headsets and could reap up to $21.9 billion depending on the final number delivered.

Microsoft explained it had worked closely with the US Army for two years already on a prototype for a product to provide soldiers with tools and capabilities to achieve their mission.

The agreement comes as a big boost for Microsoft’s AR ambitions. It announced plans to release a second version of its HoloLens headset in 2019, which was at the time expected to retail for around $3,500.