![]() ![]() Together with a different engine and improved turret, this produced the M2 combat car. ![]() A change to the suspension so that the idler wheel rested on the ground ("trailing") increased the length of track in contact with the ground and improved the ride. The T5 was developed further and the T5E2 was accepted for production as the "M1 combat car". The only major difference between the two was that the T5 used vertical volute suspension while the T2 had leaf springs as on the Vickers. ![]() At the same time, they built a light tank similar to the T2 for the cavalry – the T5 combat car. In the mid-1930s, the Rock Island Arsenal built three experimental T2 light tanks inspired by the British Vickers 6-ton tank. Army cavalry units to be equipped with armored fighting vehicles, the tanks developed for the cavalry were designated "combat cars". The mechanization of the army was promoted by General Douglas MacArthur (Chief of Staff of the US Army) who believed that the cavalry should have tanks for an exploiting role rather than acting in support of the infantry. was limited to a couple of test vehicles a year. With very tight restrictions on spending, tank development in the U.S. Light tanks were defined as weighing five tons or less – so they could be carried by trucks – and medium tanks no greater than 15 tons to meet bridge weight limits. The National Defense Act of 1920 set tanks as the responsibility of the infantry and the general staff defined the purpose of tanks as the support of infantry units. Army), realized that they needed tanks armed with cannons, not merely vehicles armed with machine guns, and so the M1 became obsolete.Ĭivil War veterans (wearing Grand Army of the Republic uniforms) inspect an M1 Combat Car at the 1939 World's Fair in New York History and development After the Spanish Civil War, most armies, (including the U.S. Cavalry in the late 1930s and developed at the same time as the infantry's very similar M2 light tank. The M1 Combat Car, officially Light Tank, M1, was a light tank used by the U.S. ![]()
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