A combat engineer is a type of soldier who performs military engineering tasks in support of land forces combat operations. Combat engineers perform a variety of military engineering, tunnel and mine warfare tasks, as well as construction and demolition duties in and out of combat zones.
Royal Engineers preparing site for a bridge in Afghanistan
Buffalo MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle), a common vehicle used to uncover improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by combat engineer units
The IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer is used for a variety of combat engineering tasks, including opening routes, demolishing structures, digging antivehicular ditches, and constructing vehicle fighting positions.
IED detonator in Iraq
A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses, and road and airfield construction and repair.
Modern sapper equipment
Soldiers of No 2 Field Company, Bombay Sappers and Miners on duty in China in 1900. The mule carries the tools required for field engineering tasks.
The fort of Ghazni which fell as a result of mining by a mixed contingent of the Bombay and Bengal Sappers during the First Afghan War on 23 July 1839.
A sapper of the Royal Engineers watches as soldiers reinforce security at FOB (Forward Operating Base) Shawqat in Afghanistan.
