[8]: p.154  The M1074 was designed by Leonardo DRS for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to provide deployable bridge capability for units engaged in military operations.

The JABS was conceived as a compromise between the M104 Wolverine that was deemed too expensive to operate and the aging M60 Patton-based M60 AVLB which could not adequately support the Abrams and Bradley vehicles.

The vehicle provides the Army Mobility Augmentation Companies supporting Armored Brigade Combat Teams with a survivable, deployable and sustainable heavy-assault-bridging capability.

On August 23, 2016, DRS Technologies, Inc., announced that the U.S. Army had awarded it an indefinite quantity contract worth up to $400 million to build the new JABS.

This is projected to lower maintenance costs as well as increased availability and unit readiness with commonality of parts with the Abrams chassis.

[22] The vehicle itself is unarmed; however, the crewmembers are typically armed with assault rifles (M16 or M4), pistols, flares, and/or colored smoke grenades.

It can deploy an MLC115 (Caution 120)[9] Heavy Assault Scissor Bridge (HASB) with a gap crossing of 18.3 m in approximately 3 minutes.