- The US Marine Corps is developing a robot breaching vehicle that can clear mines and other obstacles in the surf for forces storming a contested beach, Marine Corps Systems Command said recently.
- The Crawling Remotely-operated Amphibious Breacher, or CRAB, is a submersible, remote-controlled expendable breaching platform that can be deployed from a littoral utility craft, and it is expected to address a key capability gap.
- The two-year prototyping process led by MCSC is expected to begin following the approval of the relevant fiscal year 2020 funding request.
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The Marines are planning to build big robot breachers that will clear mines and other man-made obstacles in the surf for troops storming contested beaches, Marine Corps Systems Command said recently.
The Crawling Remotely-operated Amphibious Breacher (CRAB), a heavy submersible, remote-controlled expendable breaching platform equipped with a mine flail, tiller, and rake, will deploy from a littoral utility craft and eliminate threats to a landing force to clear an assault lane.
On land, the Marines depend on an 80-ton Assault Breacher Vehicle - an M1A1 Abrams tank chassis equipped with improved armor, a mine plow/combat dozer blade, and line charges - for mine-clearing missions. While these vehicles have traditionally been manned, the Army and the Marines are experimenting with unmanned breachers.
A prototype was tested for the first time in about late April or early May.
The problem with these vehicles is that they do not work in the surf, a deadly breach point that the military wants to avoid sending troops into without unmanned support systems.
The new robotic breachers the Marines want to build "will support combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal Marines by providing a remote or autonomous explosive and nonexplosive obstacle reduction capability within very shallow water, surf zone and the beach," Michael Poe, the team lead for Marine Corps Systems Command's Mobility and Counter Mobility program, said in a recent statement.
"Currently, the Naval Force can only breach in the surf zone with significant risk to mission or personnel," explained Capt. Anthony Molnar, MCSC's MK154 and MK155 project officer. The CRABs are expected to save lives by addressing a critical Marine Corps capability gap - the inability to effectively detect and clear explosives in the turbulent surf zone.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger put mine clearing and countermeasures in focus in his Commandant's Planning Guide, writing, "We cannot wait to identify solutions to our mine countermeasure needs, and must make this a priority for our future force development efforts."
Right now, the CRAB is conceptual. The two-year prototyping process is expected to begin once the funding request for fiscal year 2020 is approved.