Assault Breacher Vehicle M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle ( ABV ) , shortly Breacher , and nicknamed The Shredder , is the name of a military vehicle model as first used on a larger scale by the US Marines in the joint ISAF - Afghan " Operation Moshtarak " in Southern Afghanistan during the War in Afghanistan in 2010 against the Taliban insurgency . Design and purpose . These tracked combat vehicles were especially designed to clear pathways for troops and other vehicles through minefields and along roadside bomb s and Improvised Explosive Device s . The 72 - ton , 40 - foot ( 12 - meter ) - long vehicles are based on the M1 Abrams with a 1 , 500 horsepower engine , but fitted with a 50 - caliber machine gun and a front - mounted 15 - foot ( 4 . 5 - meter ) wide plow , supported by metallic skis that glide on the dirt and armed with nearly 7 , 000 pounds ( 3 , 175 kilograms ) of explosives . They were called " " the answer " " to the deadliest threat facing NATO troops in this conflict . The Breachers are also equipped with M58 MICLIC Mine Clearing Line Charges : rockets carrying C - 4 explosives up to 100 - 150 yards ( meters ) forward , detonating hidden bombs at a safe distance , so that troops and vehicles can pass through safely . In the 1990s , the U . S . Army decided it could not afford to continue developing complicated , maintenance - heavy vehicles for this purpose . The Grizzly program was canceled in 2001 . The prototype developed never made it to the production lines . The Marine Corps however persisted and funded its own development and testing . The main body of the final model of the ABV is built on the General Dynamics chassis that is used for the M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank . Pearson Engineering of the UK provided the specially designed plow and the other mine - clearing accessories . First use in combat . In the morning of December 3 , 2009 , for the first time breachers were used in combat , when Marines pushed into the Taliban stronghold Now Zad during " Operation Cobra ' s Anger " in Helmand province , on their way to another Taliban stronghold Marjah , 380 miles ( 610 kilometers ) southwest of Kabul , that was to be assaulted in February 2010 . On February 11 , 2010 , two breachers fired explosive line charges in the desert outside Sistani , to test Taliban defenses on the eve of " Operation Moshtarak " when closing off the enemy ' s escape route . On February 13 , 2010 , on the first day of the operation , breachers of the US Marines 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion succeeded in digging and blasting " " safety lanes " " through the numerous minefields laid by the Taliban around Marjah . According to a report in December 2009 , there were then five ABVs in Afghanistan , and the U . S . Marines were said to have plans to field a total of 52 by 2012 , of which about 34 have already had been produced . The U . S . Army was said to have ordered 187 . Other deployments . By August 2013 , six Assault Breacher Vehicles were brought to the Korean Peninsula . They are used by the 2nd Infantry Division to provide the capability for deliberate and in - stride breaching of mine fields and complex obstacles . The ABVs would allow the 2ID to clear the heavily mined Korean Demilitarized Zone , believed to contain tens of thousands to millions of mines . A previous deployment of MRAP mine - resistant vehicles to Korea caused North Korea to accuse their presence as vehicles that would cross the DMZ for an attack of the country . The MRAPs have since been withdrawn . North Korea has not responded to the ABV ' s arrival to the peninsula .