Renault FT tank (rotating turret and rear engine)
Carro de combate Renault FT (torreta giratoria y motor trasero)
- Date
- 1917 · confidence high
- Place
- Billancourt, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Louis Renault and General Jean-Baptiste Estienne
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A light two-man tank with the engine at the rear, the driver at the front and the armament in a fully rotating turret. It set the basic layout of the tank that remains in use.
It is a design milestone, not the first tank (the British Mark I dates from 1916); the FT was the first production tank with its armament in a fully rotating turret (over 3,000 built, most in 1918).
What it led to
- interwar and Second World War tanks
- the light infantry tank
- armoured warfare doctrines