The French Army had traditionally been highly regarded by the US military, as having the best and most modern military in Europe. Other upgrades included improved suspension, improved transmission, and better engine cooling. By 1940 the twin machine gun turrets were replaced by one larger turret with a 37 mm gun, and armor reached 25 mm. The Cavalry branch had already opted for a single, larger turret on its nearly identical M1 Combat Car. The twin-turret layout was inefficient, but was a common feature of 1930s light tanks derived from the Vickers, such as the Soviet T-26 and Polish 7TP.įollowing the Spanish Civil War, most armies, including the US Army, realized that they needed 'gun' armed tanks and not machinegun armed vehicles. These early twin-turret tanks were given the nickname ' Mae West' by the troops, after the popular busty movie star. After only 10 units were delivered, the Infantry branch decided to switch to a twin turret configuration, with a. 50 machine gun, installed in a small one-man turret.

The design coming from the earlier T1 and T2 was somewhat inspired by the famous Vickers 6-ton. As the Light Tank T2E1, the M2 was developed in 1935 by Rock Island Arsenal for the infantry branch of the U.S.

American modern light tank