Microsoft’s Army Goggles Risk 50% Cut to $22 Billion Estimate

The U.S. Army’s initial estimate that it may spend nearly $22 billion over the next decade on high-tech combat goggles and related services from Microsoft Corp. may be double what the service really expects.

Pushing back on criticism in a report Friday from the Pentagon’s inspector general that the contract “could result in wasting up to $21.9 billion in taxpayers funds to field a system that soldiers may not want to use or use as intended,” the Army said the estimate was a worst-case scenario and a ceiling for what the service would expect to spend.

Soldiers don the Integrated Visual Augmentation System Capability Set 3 hardware while mounted in a Stryker in Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Washington.

Photographer: Courtney Bacon/U.S. Army

“Less than half ...