[4] By making a small tractor or scraper, it was possible to create a lightweight vehicle that could use local material as ballast.

It performs critical combat engineer tasks such as digging hull defilade fighting positions for guns, tanks, and other battlefield systems to increase their survivability.

The engine, drive train, and driver's compartment are biased toward the rear of the vehicle, while the front comprises an 8.7 cubic yard (6.7 m3) bowl, apron, and dozer blade with a composite aluminum ejector which can unload ballast and or cargo quickly in combat or hostile conditions.

The vehicle hull is welded and bolted aluminum with a two-speed winch capable of a 25,000 pound (110 kN) line pull.

It is equipped with a suspension system which allows the front of the vehicle to be raised, lowered, or tilted to permit dozing, excavating, rough grading, and ditching functions.

The M9 is armored against small arms and artillery fragmentation, has smoke screening capability, and has chemical-biological protection for the operator.

The principal components are eight high-pressure hydraulic rotary actuators (four on each side) which connect to the roadwheel stations.

In Operation Desert Storm, the ACE proved to be a successful combination of armored vehicle and combat earthmover that was capable of keeping pace with the maneuver units.

This is also associated with a decreased combat efficiency due to the manual locking pins, which were usually unnecessary unless traveling at high speeds, as this could sever the blade hinges when not carefully monitored.

This ability to move with maneuver forces over several hundred kilometers of desert allowed it to successfully perform a wide variety of missions such as construction of combat roads and trails, survivability positions, and berms.

The training of ACE operators appeared in some units to be inadequate, constrained by a lack of technical mechanical expertise and maintenance of hydraulic accumulators systems.