T-18 (MS-1)
In service 1928 - 1930s (bunkers to 1941)
The first tank designed and built in the Soviet Union, derived from the Renault FT and produced in the hundreds.
Built byBolshevik Factory, Leningrad
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
The MS-1 (small escort tank, first model) was the Soviet answer to a shortage of captured FTs: an FT layout with a new transverse engine, a sprung suspension and a two-man turret. Around 960 were built between 1928 and 1931, giving the Red Army its first domestic tank production experience and the factories that would later build the T-26 and BT. Obsolete by the mid-1930s, surviving hulls were dug in as fixed bunkers and some were still fighting as pillboxes in 1941.
Variants
One canonical record, 3 recorded variants.
T-18 model 1927
1928Initial production with 37 mm Hotchkiss-PS gun.
T-18 model 1930
1930Improved engine and a fifth road wheel for better trench crossing.
T-18 bunker conversion
1938Turrets and hulls dug in as fixed defensive positions, some still in use in 1941.
Notable actions
- Soviet-Chinese conflict 1929
- Defensive fighting 1941 (as bunkers)