MicroVision recently returned from JIFX 2026 at the NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts, California, where technology companies and operational personnel come together to explore how emerging technologies can support real-world defense missions.
We went to JIFX to demonstrate our recently launched MOVIA Air™ system and its ability to bring advanced lidar and perception to unmanned aerial systems, but the conversations we had on the ground quickly became much broader.
Here are three observations we took away from the week.
1. Real-Time Understanding Changes What’s Possible
Today’s camera-based drone systems can provide valuable imagery, but operators told us about some important limitations: no real-time dimension information about the environment, difficulty operating at night, reliance on GPS, and workflows that can require recovering an asset before data can be downloaded and processed. Military units need rapid dimensioned data about the environment to replace manned teams for landing site surveys, battle damage assessment, and pre-infiltration situational awareness.
Lidar has the potential to address many of these challenges, but historically size, weight and cost have made it difficult to deploy on smaller aerial platforms.
That’s what made MOVIA™ Air stand out at JIFX.
Attendees immediately recognized the possibilities created by its compact, lightweight design. And when combined with onboard perception in MOVIA™ Air Plus, those possibilities extend well beyond simply capturing better data.
Our demonstration showed MOVIA™ Air Plus generating a 3D map of an unknown environment in real time by combining lidar and camera data, processing it onboard and streaming the resulting intelligence back to an operator on the ground. In addition, the ability for MicroVision to process the resulting data directly to ATAK is a huge operational advantage: squads are able to share the information quickly within their existing data processing ecosystem.
With SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping), the system can also map an unknown environment while simultaneously determining its own position within that map – opening the door to autonomous navigation in GNSS-denied environments where GPS may be unavailable or intentionally disrupted.
The takeaway: The value isn't simply seeing more. It's understanding the environment in real time and acting on that information faster.
2. The Opportunity Is Bigger Than the Drone
We arrived at JIFX focused on aerial perception. The conversations quickly expanded to air, land, and sea.
Operational personnel weren't thinking about lidar as a sensor for a single platform. They were thinking about how better environmental intelligence could be shared across platforms to improve situational awareness and help keep personnel safer.
Consider an aerial system equipped with MOVIA™ Air Plus mapping terrain from above while an unmanned ground vehicle equipped with HALO™ captures long-range data at ground level. Fuse those inputs into a common 3D view and stream that intelligence into an ATAK interface, and operators gain a much more complete picture of the environment around them.
The same concept extends to maritime environments. HALO-equipped vessels working alongside UAVs carrying MOVIA™ Air could provide complementary perspectives across water, shoreline and surrounding terrain and enable vehicles to localize along the shoreline. MOVIA™ S could provide additional short-range awareness for tasks such as maneuvering and docking, including at night when traditional visual references may be limited, as well as target tracking of enemy vessels.
The takeaway: The bigger opportunity isn't putting lidar on more platforms. It's connecting perception across platforms and domains.
3. The Future Is an Integrated Perception Ecosystem
Perhaps the most important takeaway from JIFX was where the conversations ultimately went. They moved beyond individual sensors. Beyond drones. And even beyond individual domains.
The larger challenge is how to give operational personnel and autonomous systems a more complete, real-time understanding of complex environments.
That means combining lidar, cameras and onboard perception across multiple platforms and turning those inputs into actionable intelligence that can help operators see farther, understand more and make better-informed decisions.
For MicroVision, that creates an opportunity that spans our portfolio: MOVIA™ Air in the sky, HALO for long-range awareness, MOVIA™ S for short-range perception, and software that can bring those different perspectives together.
JIFX gave us the opportunity to demonstrate what our technology can do today. More importantly, it gave us a clearer picture of what operators need next.
We went to JIFX to show what MOVIA™ Air could do in the sky. We left seeing a much bigger opportunity: an integrated perception ecosystem spanning air, land, and sea