M1 Combat Car

The M1 Combat Car was a light tank used by the U.S. Cavalry in the late 1930s and developed at the same time as the infantry's very similar M2 light tank. After the Spanish Civil War, most armies, including the U.S. Army, realized that they needed tanks armed with cannons, not merely vehicles armed with machine guns, and so the M1 became obsolete.

History and development

The National Defense Act of 1920 set tanks as the responsibility of the infantry and the General Staff defined the purpose of tanks as the support of infantry units. Light tanks were defined as weight 5 tons or less – so they could be carried by truck – and medium tanks no greater than 15 tons to meet bridge weight limits. With very tight restrictions on spending, tank development in the US was limited to a couple of test vehicles a year. The mechanization of the army was promoted by General Douglas MacArthur (Chief of Staff of the US Army) who believed that the cavalry should have tanks for an exploiting role rather than act in support of the infantry. To allow U.S. Army cavalry units to be equipped with armored fighting vehicles, the tanks developed for the cavalry were designated "combat cars".

Tank classification

Tank classification is a taxonomy of identifying either the intended role or weight class of tanks. The classification by role was used primarily during the developmental stage of the national armoured forces, and referred to the doctrinal and force structure utility of the tanks based on design emphasis. The weight classification is used in the same way truck classification is used, and is intended to accommodate logistic requirements of the tanks.

Many classification systems have been used over the nearly one hundred years of tank history. An early division in the definition of roles was between Infantry tanks intended to focus on supporting infantry in the assault, and cruiser tanks intended for classic cavalry missions of exploitation, screening and reconnaissance. As World War II progressed, the separation of "infantry" and "cruiser" roles generally disappeared and the "universal tank" started to take over.

Classification has always been determined by the prevailing theories of armoured warfare, which have been altered in turn by rapid advances in technology. No one classification system works across all periods or all nations; in particular, weight-based classification was inconsistent between countries and eras.