Marines Assault Breacher Vehicle clears path to attack Taliban

McClatchy:

The new NATO offensive in Helmand Province marked not only the largest assault yet for the VM-22 Osprey, but also the combat debut of the Marines' massive new combat mine and bomb-clearing machine, the Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), said a Marine Corps spokesman in Helmand.

The ABV, which looks like something out of an apocalyptic science fiction movie, is built on the chassis of the M1A1 Abrams tank, but with a different turret and no main gun. Instead, it's equipped with a giant mine-clearing plow on the front and devices that shoot long lines of C4 explosives to clear a lane through bombs and mines.

An automated system shoves poles into the ground on both sides of the newly safe lane as the ABV moves forward.

It can even be operated remotely, without a crew.

The assault, which includes about 900 U.S. Marines and sailors and 150 Afghan soldiers, started in the predawn hours Friday.

By Saturday no casualties had been reported among the NATO and Afghan Army troops involved, said Maj. William Pelletier, a spokesman at the Marine Corp's main base in Afghanistan and Helmand Province, Camp Leatherneck.

The insurgents were caught off guard and had mustered only sporadic resistance, firing fewer than a dozen times, Pelletier said. In each case, they were killed.

The U.S. and Afghan troops captured caches of bomb-making material, mortars, machine guns and other small arms, he said.

ABVs were used to clear a path through a whole field of improvised bombs as the NATO and Afghan troops worked their way around the city of Now Zad, Pelletier said.

...

This appears to be an improved version of the breaching plows used to clear a path for the invasion of Iraqi held Kuwait in 1991. At the time many of the plows were borrowed from the Israelis. I have been curious why they have not been used to deal with the IEDs.

It is a weapons system that has to unnerve the Taliban who have relied on the IEDs to impede any advance by US troops.