Varjo Opens New Manufacturing Facility in Finland to Meet Growing XR Defense Needs

In Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News

September 11, 2024 – Varjo, a provider of industrial virtual and mixed reality (VR/MR) solutions, has recently announced that it has opened a new secure manufacturing facility in the greater Helsinki region in Finland.

Varjo stated that the expansion will enable it to meet an increasing demand for its high-resolution extended reality (XR) solutions in defense training and simulation, with the company noting a projected total addressable market in training simulations alone expected to reach approximately USD $900 million by 2027.

The new secure manufacturing facility, with full on-site staff, features secure production and warehouse areas, a product and process development area, including reliability testing, and an audio development section.

Varjo noted that the opening of the new facility has been primarily driven by a growing demand from its defense customers, as well as the company’s close collaboration with Cole Engineering Services Inc. (CESI), which is a key contractor for the U.S. Army’s Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer (RVCT) program.

“The close partnership between Varjo and CESI has been instrumental in ramping up our new secure manufacturing capability. Our new facility ensures that Varjo can meet the high-security requirements of our governmental customers while supporting the rapid growth of XR demand in the defense sector,” said Timo Toikkanen, Varjo CEO.

Varjo’s technology plays an important role within the U.S. Army’s synthetic training program, providing soldiers with fully immersive, highly realistic training environments where they can interact with physical controls in real-time. In August 2023 Varjo was chosen as the XR technology provider for the RVCT Air program, enabling a portable training capability for three different helicopters: Apache, Chinook, and Blackhawk.

Eric Carr, Program Director for RVCT at CESI, emphasized the importance of Varjo’s technology in enhancing defense training simulations: “Varjo was selected for the RVCT program because of its ability to provide a mixed reality solution with high-resolution visuals, meeting the demanding requirements of the program. The Varjo XR-4 Secure Edition headsets offer high-resolution imagery for both mixed reality and synthetic environments, and their TAA-compliant manufacturing process makes them ideal for high-security settings.”

Major Brandon Dotson, Assistant Product Manager for the RVCT, commented on the critical role of XR and VR in military training, stating: “The RVCT uses XR and VR to simulate scenarios like driving tanks and flying helicopters, providing an immersive experience that is crucial for effective training. The whole point of RVCT is to make training easier and accessible to Soldiers at the lowest echelon. Historically, training required large facilities and dedicated teams of contractors, but now we’re pushing that capability down to the Soldier, making it as easy and intuitive as possible to execute training.”

Varjo added that its commitment to providing advanced XR technology for emerging use cases such as training Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators is reinforced by the new secure manufacturing facility in Finland.

For more information on Varjo and its XR solutions for defense training and simulation, please visit the company’s website.

Image / video credit: Varjo / Vimeo