If a collection of soldiers and scientists are successful, troops may never again have to run, on foot, into a breach, swinging a grappling hook in a scene resembling medieval foot soldiers breaking through enemy fortifications. Instead, soldiers of the future may pilot explosives-laden drones and robotic bulldozers into the tangle of concertina wire, steel barricades and landmines.
Over the past nine months, the 264th Engineer Clearance Company, with the 20th Engineer Brigade at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, began its third phase of human-machine teaming experiments. The Sandhills Project began more than a year ago, when the XVIII Airborne Corps commander tasked the brigade with finding a way to keep soldiers out of the breach, one of the deadliest spots in a combat zone.
Col. Sean Shields, 20th Engineer Brigade commander, recently laid out modern examples that military experts are witnessing in Ukraine and what it could mean for future U.S. military operations. In early 2023, when the Ukraine military mounted a counteroffensive against the Russian invasion, Ukrainian troops faced some of the most extensive obstacle networks seen since World War II, Shields said.
Current methods rely on 1950s-era technology, such as the Mine Clearing Line Charge, or MICLIC, a trailer-borne line charge launcher that must be towed to the breach by an armored vehicle. Shields and his team are looking toward defense industry tech to solve that problem. Units must “start” five breaching lanes to ensure they’ll have one successful breach, Command Sgt. Maj. Corey Wilkens, with the 20th Engineer Brigade, oversees the Sandhills Project with Shields.
