12 June 2025
Australian sappers got their hands dirty, literally and figuratively, on the newly delivered Combat Engineering Vehicles (CEV) in the Puckapunyal Military Area.
Based on the M1 Abrams chassis, most of the 29 M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicles and 17 M1110 Joint Assault Bridge, referred to commonly as CEVs, are destined for the 3rd Combat Engineering Regiment (3CER).
Before they head to their final destination though, the first of the delivered CEVs will teach sappers how to drive and employ the new suite of capabilities CEVs will bring to the battlefield.
Sappers were also training on a variety of front-end attachments including the combat dozer blade, the full-width mine plough and the excavator manipulator arm.
Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Robert Barrera is a sapper, CEV course manager and program manager currently posted to the School of Armour (SoARMD), helping bridge the gap between engineering and armoured tactics.
“The School of Armour and the School of Military Engineering have been working together to support the development of doctrine as this is a new capability to Defence”, he said.
Corporal Liam Kelly, one of the sappers training on the CEVs, said it was a “game changer”.
“Before CEV, we pretty much just rolled in dismounted into the bridge, basically,” Corporal Kelly said.
“I think the new CEV is a great capability. It's definitely going to increase our ability to perform breaching operations, and it's also going to greatly increase the capacity at which we can provide that mobility support to our friendly forces and get them to move around the battle space.”
'Being able to do it under armour, obviously, you're a lot more defended. It's going to take less soldiers in the breach, which is what you want.'
CEVs will allow sappers to conduct breaching, bridging and engineering all while protected under armour, increasing their survivability.
“Being able to do it under armour, obviously, you're a lot more defended. It's going to take less soldiers in the breach, which is what you want. It's going to be a lot faster as well,” Corporal Kelly said.
For WO2 Barerra, who has a long history with the project, it’s satisfying to see the vehicles finally kicking up dirt in the Puckapunyal dust bowl.
“Seeing the sappers from 3CER and soldiers from the School of Armour in these platforms is great because this has been a project that I've been supporting for a long time,” he said.
“To actually see it realised, to know that this capability is moving up to 3CER within the next couple of months, and to know that they're going to be employing it later this year, seeing that come to fruition has been a big highlight”.
Project LAND 907 was instigated in 2021 and will see all 75 of its new M1A2 Main Battle Tanks and 46 CEVs delivered by the end of the year.
