Meta Platforms Inc. and Anduril Industries Inc., a defense technology startup, announced today that they’re partnering to develop wearable devices for the U.S. military.

Anduril received a $14 billion valuation in its most recent funding round last year. The company develops aircraft, subsea sensors and other hardware systems for the defense sector. It also provides artificial intelligence software for powering that equipment.

Anduril is led by Chief Executive Officer Palmer Luckey, who previously launched an early virtual reality startup called Oculus Labs Inc. The latter company was bought in 2014 by Meta, then Facebook Inc., for $2 billion. The acquisition formed the basis of the Reality Labs business unit that develops Meta’s Quest mixed reality headsets.

Reality Labs is set to participate in the new partnership with Anduril. According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan is to develop a line of wearables called EagleEye that will include rugged helmets, glasses and other devices. The systems are expected to provide virtual reality and mixed reality features.

According to Anduril, EagleEye will enhance the wearer’s hearing and vision. The devices in the series are also intended to provide users with the ability to remotely control autonomous systems.

According to TechCrunch, EagleEye will use algorithms from Meta’s Llama family of open-source language models. Most of the models in the series are designed to run on data center servers. There are also smaller neural networks, most notably the billion-parameter Llama-3.2-1B, that can run on resource-constrained devices such as virtual reality headsets.

EagleEye will also incorporate Lattice, an operating system that Anduril ships with its products. The software provides users with access to data collected by defense systems. Anduril says Lattice can collect information from thousands of sources.

The operating system is powered by a networking engine called Lattice Mesh. According to Anduril, the technology allows devices to exchange data with one another over encrypted connections. In situations where bandwidth is limited, Lattice Mesh automatically prioritizes the most important traffic.

“The world is entering a new era of computing that will give people access to limitless intelligence and extend their senses and perception in ways that have never been possible before,” said Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth. “Our national security benefits enormously from American industry bringing these technologies to life.”

Meta and Anduril have reportedly placed a joint bid for a $100 million virtual reality device contract issued by the U.S. Army. The deal is part of a broader technology procurement program, SBMC Next, that could be worth up to $22 billion. Anduril replaced Microsoft as the lead supplier for the program earlier this year. 

Photo: Anduril Industries