The project has been far from smooth from the beginning. The goggles' rollout was pushed back from fiscal year 2021 to 2022, but the Army said it remained fully committed to the deal.
In April 2022, the DOD warned that the massive purchase could be a waste of taxpayer money. There was worse news for Microsoft that year when an army tester said that the headsets pose a danger to soldiers due to the light they generate while active, which could alert enemy forces to a wearer's location.