72 SCALE MILITARY MODELLER INTERNATIONALmaintenance manual
Combat Engineering VehicleThe Assault Breacher CEV
T
he Assault Breacher Vehicle
or ‘ABV’ is the United States’
latest Combat Engineering
Vehicle or ‘CEV’. It is built on
the hull of the US Military’s currently serving
Main Battle Tank (MBT), the M1 Abrams.
The ABV is the first such vehicle to see
service with the US military since the M60
based M728 CEV was retired from service
in the mid-to-late 1990s, and this vehicle’s
direct predecessor, the remotely operated M1
Abrams-based M1 Panther II, was retired
from service in the late 2000s. The ABV was
developed to meet the United States MarineCorps (USMC) requirement for a new CEV
that could clear safe routes for traffic and
infantry through minefields, obstacles,
roadside bombs, and Improvised Explosive
Devices (IEDs). In the late 1990s, the US
Military were working on an Abrams-based
CEV to replace the M728. This was known as
the ‘Grizzly’. The US Army, however, decided
to halt all development of costly, complicated
and maintenance heavy CEVs. As such, the
‘Grizzly’ Program was cancelled in 2001
with just one prototype completed. The US
Marine Corps persisted though, funding the
development of the ABV themselves. Between2002 and 2006, six vehicles, prototypes
and pre-production models, were built for
testing. The ABV, often known simply as ‘The
Breacher’ finally finished its development
in 2008. It first saw action in 2009 in
Afghanistan, before formally entering service
in 2010.
The ABV was specially designed to clear
routes through battlefields heavily saturated
with mines and other obstacles that would
otherwise impede friendly forces from taking
a designated objective. The vehicle can create
a safe lane for friendly vehicles to travel on
and can physically break through, or ‘Breach’,Maintenance Manual