The effect of improvised explosive devices on US military casualties has been devastating. The US Marine Corps is responding to the threat of IED’s by deploying the Assault Breacher Vehicle.

The US Marine Corps Assault Breacher Vehicle is actually a set of modifications to the M1 Abrams tank.

The modifications include devices to locate, un-earth and detonate IED’s without exposing US military forces to harm.

The Assault Breacher Vehicle looks like a mix between a construction machine and a warfare vehicle and was almost removed from development and deployment due to budgetary concerns. Given the coming campaign in regions of Afghanistan that are known to contain Taliban militants and IED’s, the USMC is glad they funded the Assault Breacher Vehicle project out of their discretionary funds.

“Marja is located 380 miles southwest of Kabul, the national capital. Taliban forces have had months to bury roadside bombs in anticipation of an assault by Western troops. Increasing the difficulty, the land is broken up by irrigation canals, built by the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, that could stop the advance of tanks and other assault vehicles.

Enter the breacher, a cross between a tank and a bulldozer, armed with a .50-caliber machine gun and grenade launcher, powered by a 1,500-horsepower turbine engine, and manned by a driver and an operator of the vehicle’s weapons and communications systems.

The breacher operator fires line charges loaded with explosives. Once the lengthy lines hit the ground, they can be detonated by the operator from inside the vehicle. The pressure of the explosives is designed to detonate any roadside bombs buried by an enemy.

Two breachers, side by side, are meant to clear a path wide enough for other vehicles and infantry troops. The scoops on the front of the vehicles can help deflect the explosion from buried bombs; a different scoop can fill irrigation canals with dirt to permit passage.

The Marja campaign will involve Marines and Afghan soldiers and will probably be seen as a major test for the Afghans, whose army is still in the formative stage. Eight senior Afghan officers were recently hosted by Marines at Quantico, Va., Camp Pendleton and Twentynine Palms.

“Afghans have been fighting for 30 years,” Afghan Lt. Col. Abdulltai Nashat told reporters at Camp Pendleton. “They will fight forever — don’t worry about that.”

And where do the Marines expect the Taliban fighters to go?

“To their graves,” said Nicholson at the Marine base in Afghanistan.”

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