US Army fields new breaching obscuration tech

A TRV-150 lifts a smoke obscuration device during a US Army 36th Engineer Brigade combat training exercise in Fort Hood, Texas. (Janes/Meredith Roaten)

US Army is fielding new devices to make it easier for engineers to obscure the battlefield during breaching operations, soldierstold Janes on 2 October.

The M75 screening obscuration module (SOM) is the replacement for the legacy M56 Coyote. Used for one of the first times in 2025, the M75 weighs less, which could enable soldiers to utilise more devices in a flexible way to protect breaching operations, two 36th Engineer Brigade combat soldiers told Janes in an interview.

The new SOM is more “sleek” than the previous system, said Staff Sergeant Jeremy Ephriam, a squad leader in the 36th Engineer Brigade, who used the SOM during a Project Convergence exercise in March. Unlike the M56 that was equipped onto the back of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs), the M75 was able to be carried into a breaching operation by a TRV-150 tactical resupply drone during a training exercise at Fort Hood, Texas, on 1–3 October.

“It's lighter weight, and you're able to attach it onto a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] system, and able to actually take off,” he said.

M75 weighs about 60 lb. Combined with the jerry can that holds the fuel for the device, it weighs about 140 lb. The jerry can holds about a gallon and a half of kerosene oil and about a pint of diesel oil, SSgt Ephriam said.

If temperatures are too low, the source of the smoke has to be switched to diesel but kerosene is the standard, he said.