Type Medium tank In service prototype only Designer Rock Island Arsenal | Place of origin United States Used by United States Army Produced 1930 | |
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The T2 Medium Tank was an American design that replaced three prototype medium tank designs started in the 1920s for an experiment conducted by United States Army. The T2 tank never saw combat and left prototype stages and was not mass-produced with having only one built in the 1930 by Rock Island Arsenal. Its legacy, however was the M2 light tank, developed into the M2 medium, and onto the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman medium tanks.
Design
The design of the T2 was largely inspired by the Britain's Vickers Medium Mark II and the T2 design later developed into M2 light tank. When the T2 Medium Tank was built, its weight had to be reduced drastically because the US War Department had set a maximum weight of 15 tons. The T2 weighed only 14 tons when it was combat-loaded. The Secondary Armament had a 0.5 inch (12.7mm) machine gun and a 0.3 inch (7.62mm) machine gun at the front of the hull on the right these were later replaced with a single 30cal machine gun. The primary armament was a 47mm semi-automatic gun mounted on the turret and it initially had an additional 37mm cannon placed on the hull but it was soon abandoned in 1931. Only one T2 was produced and currently on display at Fort Lee, Virginia.