T2 tank


The T2 Medium Tank was an American design that replaced three prototype medium tank designs started in the 1920s for an experiment conducted by the United States Army. The T2 tank never saw combat nor left prototype stages and was not mass-produced with only one built in 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 British Vickers Medium Mark II and was later developed into the 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 was a 0.5 inch machine gun and a 0.3 inch machine gun at the front of the hull on the right; these were later replaced with a single 30 cal 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 that was abandoned in 1931. Only one T2 was produced; it is currently on display at Fort Lee, Virginia.