Meta, Palmer Luckey Reunite for Military XR Headsets

Meta and Anduril Industries Collaborate on Military XR Headsets

Meta is creating extended reality headsets for military use, intending to improve soldiers’ battlefield awareness. The headsets should support real-time threat detection, such as spotting drones or highlighting enemy positions, and offer interfaces for AI combat tools.

EagleEye Wearable Line

The wearable line, EagleEye, will integrate Meta’s Llama AI models with Anduril Industries’ Lattice system to deliver battlefield data and operational coordination in real time.

Anduril Industries was founded by Palmer Luckey, who also founded Oculus. Meta acquired Oculus in 2014, but Luckey left Meta in 2017. Luckey became a presence in the defense tech sector after his exit.

Mark Zuckerberg said he was “sad” when Luckey left Meta. Meta then shifted to align more closely with national security interests, including hiring Joel Kaplan and eliminating diversity initiatives and a third-party fact-checking program.

Luckey said he was glad to be working with Meta again, stating his mission is to “turn warfighters into technomancers.”

The products will combine augmented and virtual reality interfaces, giving soldiers tools and data to help them make decisions in combat. Anduril says the products will “save the U.S. military billions of dollars by utilizing high-performance components and technology originally built for commercial use.”

Meta and Anduril have partnered to bid on a $100 million US Army contract for VR headsets, part of the $22 billion Soldier Borne Mission Command Next initiative. Anduril replaced Microsoft as lead vendor earlier this year and said development will continue regardless of the contract outcome.

This marks Meta's deepest venture into defense work. It has been hiring former Pentagon officials and opened up its Llama AI models for military applications. Anduril has also partnered with OpenAI, Oracle, and Palantir to build a broad defense technology portfolio.