Tankette A tankette is a type of lightly armed and armored tracked combat vehicle resembling a small tank roughly the size of a car , mainly intended for light infantry support or reconnaissance . Colloquially it may also simply mean a " small tank " . Tankettes were designed and built by several states between the 1920s and 1940s , and saw some combat ( with limited success ) in World War II . However , the vulnerability of their light armor eventually caused the concept to be abandoned . Characteristics . Tankettes existed both in one - or two - man models , and some were built so low that the occupant had to lie prone . Some models were not equipped with turrets ( and together with the tracked mobility , this is often seen as defining for the concept ) , or just a very simple one that was traversed by hand . They are significantly smaller than light tank s and do not possess a tank gun , instead their main weapon tended to be one or two machine gun s , or rarely with a 20mm gun or grenade launcher . History . Origins , user states . The British Carden Loyd tankette s were considered the classic and most successful designs , with many other tankettes modelled after it . While the design was successful , few Carden Loyd tankettes saw combat . However , the Universal Carrier was a related vehicle with an extensive operational history which had as its origins the Carden Loyd tankette . The Italian Royal Army ( " Regio Esercito " ) equipped three armored divisions and three " fast " ( " celere " ) divisions with L3 / 33 and L3 / 35 tankettes . L3s were used in large numbers during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia , the Spanish Civil War , and almost every place Italian soldiers fought during World War II . L3s even went with the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia ( " Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Russia " , or CSIR ) as late as Operation Barbarossa . The French Armoured Reconnaissance type of the 1930s ( " Automitrailleuses de Reconnaissance " , a " machine - gun scout " ) was essentially a tankette in form , but specifically intended for scouting ahead of the main force . The Imperial Japanese Army became one of the most prolific users of tankettes , producing a number of designs useful for jungle warfare . However , by the time of the Second World War , many were already obsolete or were found to be unsuccessful in their appointed task . Many ended up being relegated to " tractor " duties for artillery or logistics units . Concept abandoned . The concept was later abandoned due to limited usefulness and vulnerability to anti - tank weapons ( or even regular machine guns ) , and the role of tankettes was largely taken over by armoured car s . However , in the Vietnam War the US Army employed a similar vehicle , namely the M50 Ontos , with respectable success . The 1990s saw the renaissance of a similar concept with the Wiesel of the German Bundeswehr being introduced to provide airborne troops with armoured recon capability , a function that had already been trialled with Soviet T - 27 in World War II . However , the WWII - contemporary term " tankette " is not used for these modern vehicles ( they are termed " armoured weapons carriers " in the Bundeswehr ) , although they do fit the definition of a tankette .