M1 Assault Engineer Vehicle

Art by Jody Harmon (Staff Illustrator for Armor Magazine)

Background

The M1 Assault Engineer Vehicle (AEV) was built to fulfill the need for a modernized assualt engineer vehicle. The M113 could no longer fulfill the role as it could not keep up with the faster M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank (MBT) or the M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV). The Bradley did not have the room for a full engineer squad and all their specialized equipment. The Bradley also lacked the armor protection that assault engineers required to reach the breach location. The solution was to take the M1 chassis and modify it to fulfill the need.

Description

The M1 Assault Engineer Vehicle (AEV) is a modified M1 chassis with a small one man turret that contains an elevated 25mm Bushmaster autocannon (the same as the Bradley). The turret also contains a hard point which is usually fitted with a TOW launcher, though is sometimes fitted with a Hydra 70 pod (similar to those mounted on attack helicopters). The TOW launcher is accessible from inside the turret via a hatch that allows the launcher to be reloaded from the safety of the vehicle (similar to the Bradley). There are 2 hatches located on the roof of the crew compartment that allow for quick loading and unloading of troops and equipment. There is also a clamshell door located on the left side of the hull to allow troops to dismount from the vehicle without exposing themselves to enemy fire. The external storage capacity was increased through the addition of cargo compartments on the right and left flanks, to the rear of the dismount compartment.

Stats:

Note: these stats are V2.0

Price: $750,000 (R/R)

RF: +2

Armament: 25mm Cannon, Twin TOW Missile Launcher (C), 7.62mm Coaxial MG

Ammo:300x25mm, 7xTOW II, 3000x7.62mmN

Fuel Type: D, A

Load: 1000 kg

Veh Wt: 55 tons

Crew: 3 (Driver, Gunner, Commander) + 6

Mnt: 14

Night Vision: Passive IR/Thermal

Tr Mov: 140/100

Com Mov: 35/30

Fuel Cap: 1920

Fuel Cons: 560

Combat Stats:

Config: Crew in Hull

Susp: T: 6

TF: 10 HF: 200 - Cp

TS: 6 - Sp HS: 16 - Sp

TR: 4 - Sp HR: 16

*The turret armor values are the same as the M2 Bradley (IFV). The hull values are the same as the M1 series MBT.