The T-23 was a prototype

tankette A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting.

developed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

. Only 5 Examples of the vehicle were produced.

Design history

The development of the T-23 began in 1929. The Red Army, now with experience from the earlier T-17 tankette, began development of the T-23. The design featured 2 crew members (placed on a row) with a single 7.62 mm DT machine gun as the primary armament. The armour was made of riveted iron and was up to 10 mm thick on the front and sides of the vehicle. It was equipped as well with a tail, similar to that of the T-18 tank. Many of the original design features of the tank were changed during the development. Originally the T-23 was to contain the same 35 hp 4 cylinder engine as the T-18 light tank but this was eventually changed to a larger 60 hp version to enable it to reach speeds of up to 40 km/h. The length of the tank was also increased by almost 30 cm from original specifications.

Production

The T-23 never proceeded past the stage of a prototype stage. The design changes introduced to the

tankette A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting.

caused the price of production to rival that of the T-18 light tank itself, which had a much more powerful armament and a rotating

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

. There were only 5 examples produced before the project was scrapped in favour of licensing the Carden Loyd tankette from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1930. This design was subsequently modified into the T-27 tankette and began full production in 1931.

References

{{Interwar tanks, style=wide Tankettes Tankettes of the interwar period Armoured fighting vehicles of the Soviet Union Military vehicles introduced in the 1930s