USMC receives four upgraded M9 ACE vehicles

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has received four modernised M9 Armored Combat Earthmover (ACE) production units from the Marine Corps Systems Command Combat Support Systems (MCSC CSS) and Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) M9 ACE engineers.

NSWC PCD M9 ACE project engineer Jeff Dinges said that the USMC is scheduled to receive a total of 101 modernised M9 ACE vehicles by the end of Fiscal Year 2015.

Operated by one engineer equipment operator, the M9 ACE is a fully tracked armoured combat engineer vehicle provides combat engineering support to front-line Marine forces.

"When the Marines penetrate areas that appear impassable, it is the mission of the M9 ACE operator to clear all obstacles, reconstruct terrain, breach berms, prepare anti-tank ditches, prepare access routes at water obstacles and create roads, so our forces can breach these areas to complete their missions," Dinges added.

Improvements to the vehicle include an entire redesign of the hydraulic subsystem, installation of an automated track tensioning system, a redesign of the electrical subsystem, design and integration of a vision system consisting of ten cameras, the addition of an automated fire extinguishing system, and improvements from the Army’s Standard Improvement Package-4 (SIP-4).

"After a year of building six low-rate production vehicles and over two years of RAM testing, we were able to improve other areas of the vehicle beneficial to both the operator and maintainer."

Dinges has developed a new computer-based troubleshooting aid with his engineering team to help operators and maintainers learn about the vehicle, find part information, and troubleshoot subsystem problems from their computer.