Development of the M93 began in the late 1980s in response to the Warsaw Pact's numerical superiority in armored vehicles over NATO and the Assault Breaker concept to compensate through the use of high-technology standoff weapons.
[1] A development contract was awarded to Honeywell Defense Systems and Textron Inc. in August 1987.
Following the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the threat to Western Europe by large armored formations was no longer relevant.
[2] The M93 used both seismic and acoustic sensors to track and identify potential targets near the mine.
An infra-red sensor on the submunition scanned the ground as it traveled, searching for the target.