World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseIn 1925, Professor V. Zaslavsky developed a new prototype light tank for the Red Army, the first natively-designed tank in the Soviet Union. The first prototype, T-16, was tested in Jun 1927; the transmission failed too often, and it could not cross trenches more than 2 meters wide or 1.2 meters deep. Nevertheless, it was accepted into production in Jul 1927 for 108 machines with the final designation of T-18. Production began in Feb 1928 at the Leningrad Obukhov Factory in northern Russia, and Motovilikhinsky Machine-Building Plant was soon building T-18 light tanks as well. Between 1928 and 1931, 96 T-18 tanks were built. They were withdrawn from active service by 1932, but when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they were taken out from the warehouses and returned to the front lines. A number of them were re-equipped with the larger 45-millimeter guns and were re-designated T-18M.

ww2dbaseThe T-18 light tank design was also known as Maliy Soprovozhdeniya-Perviy, or MS-1.

SPECIFICATIONS

T-18

Machinery	4-cyl engine rated at 35hp
Suspension	Vertically sprung
Armament	1x37mm Model 28 gun, 1x7.62mm Fedorov-Shpagina machine gun
Armor	6-16mm
Crew	2
Length	4.38 m
Width	1.76 m
Height	2.10 m
Weight	5.9 t
Speed	17 km/h
Range	50 km

Photographs