A small Washington, D.C. startup is developing military smart glasses that could soon let soldiers direct drones and robots using nothing more than plain spoken commands. The technology, already in the hands of Army testers, represents one of the most ambitious bets on AI-assisted warfare yet attempted by a private company.
The company is called Rivet, and last year it was one of two contractors selected by the U.S. Army for the Soldier Borne Mission Command program — a Defense Department initiative focused on building a wearable device that improves battlefield awareness and communication for ground troops.
Since winning that contract, Rivet has raised $55 million in Series A financing and delivered its first 70 prototype units to the Army, according to co-founder and CEO Dave Marra.
A Different Kind of Wearable
The other contractor selected alongside Rivet was defense tech firm Anduril, which developed a headset modeled closely on the Army’s existing Integrated Visual Augmentation System, known as IVAS. Rivet went in a different direction entirely — designing a product that looks more like a conventional pair of eyeglasses than a combat helmet attachment.
The device is called the Rivet Hard Spec. Marra described the core idea as serving people who, in his words,
“do hard jobs in hard places.”
The original mission was straightforward: give infantry soldiers real-time targeting and navigation data without requiring them to look down at a screen. But the application has grown considerably. Rivet now sees the glasses as a tool that can walk any trained service member through technical or mechanical procedures they may only perform occasionally — without needing a physical manual on hand.
Marra explained that the goal isn’t to replace specialized expertise, but to extend it.
“So it’s not just like, ‘Hey, we want to create one solution for every military occupational specialty,'”
Marra said.
“[It’s] what you want to do as a multifunctional soldier or Marine or airman. And this kind of technology is a great accelerator to exactly that.”
He pointed to high-pressure situations where a missed step in a technical procedure could have serious consequences.
“If you happen to forget or you’re not 100% proficient in this role or you don’t do this particular procedure every single day, you can very easily see how a step could be overlooked, especially when you’re in a high-stress environment,”
he said.
Beyond the military, Rivet is also adapting the technology for other fields, primarily aerospace manufacturing and vehicle maintenance operations.
The Bigger Vision: Soldiers Commanding AI Agents
The near-term applications are notable, but Rivet’s longer-term ambitions go further. The company wants soldiers to use the Hard Spec to issue commands to AI agents that can, in turn, operate drones and robots on the battlefield — all through natural, conversational language.
Marra drew a clear line between this vision and standard AI tools like chatbots.
“I’m asking an agent to go do something on my behalf,”
he said.
“What we want to get is where an agent and a robot can task each other.”
He emphasized that soldiers should be able to communicate with these systems
“in common language, not command language.”
As an example, Marra described a scenario where a soldier could simply tell a drone:
“‘Hey, there is a target over that hill. Please orbit over that hill and reconnoiter it and send me back the video.'”
The concept has a pop culture parallel that Marra himself might appreciate — it is almost identical to the MacGuffin at the center of the 2019 film Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which a pair of glasses links the wearer to an AI-powered global defense network.
Marra framed the technology’s role in straightforward terms.
“And the best way to do that today is having a pair of glasses that has eyes and ears on [the AI],”
he said.
“So in many cases, I would say that we’re putting eyes and ears on AI, and then allowing this kind of agentic ensemble to happen within the human workforce.”
For more on developments in Army technology and soldier gear, visit Army Times. Related coverage includes discussions with Army Under Secretary Michael Obadal on Rethinking Weapons, AI and Modern Warfare and Lt. Gen. Gavin Lawrence on Modernizing the Army’s Industrial Base and Infrastructure. Also of note: Leonardo DRS Discusses the Urgency of Counter-Drone Defense and TAPS Founder Bonnie Carroll on Supporting the Families of America’s Fallen.
