Stridsvagn L - 120 Stridsvagn L - 120 ( ) was a light tank designed in Sweden . One tank and one tank chassis was ordered for tests by the Swedish Army in 1936 , and one chassis was ordered by the Norwegian Army the same year . The chassis sold to Norway became Norway ' s first ever tank , after an improvised turret and makeshift armour had been added . Swedish service . In October 1936 the Swedish Army placed an order with the armoured fighting vehicle manufacturer AB Landsverk in the Scanian city of Landskrona for one L - 120 tank and one L - 120 tank chassis for testing purposes . In April the following year an order for a tank turret followed . The tank chassis was delivered to the Swedish Army in May 1937 , and the tank in July – August the same year . In July 1937 , just some two months after it was delivered , the tank chassis was bought back by AB Landsverk in connection with a large order for Stridsvagn L - 60 light tanks being made by the Swedish government from AB Landsverk . The repurchased tank chassis was then probably used to fulfil an order from Norway . " Rikstanken " . Concurrently with the Swedish order Landsverk also received an order from Norway for a tank chassis , with delivery set at March 1937 . The cost of the purchase was SEK 30 , 000 , around the equivalent of . After delivery delays the tank chassis was handed over to Norway . The chassis was equipped after arrival with an improvised turret and ordinary iron plates for armour and was armed with a Colt M / 29 heavy machine gun , making it Norway ' s first ever tank . The tank was quickly dubbed " Rikstanken " ( ) by the Norwegians . Other nicknames were " Kongstanken " ( ) and " Norgestanken " ( ) . The name " Norgestanken " was a humorous invention , playing on the fact that the word " tanken " in Norwegian means both " the tank " and " the thought " , making it a pun . The noun " Norgestanken " ( ) was an old nationalistic term for the idea of an independent Norway . " Kongstanken " , as in " the royal thought " , signifies a grand and bold thought or an idealistic idea . The purchase of the tank by the Norwegian government happened on the background of the increased tension in Europe preceding the Second World War . The threatening situation convinced the Norwegian government to budget for the purchase of a tank for the Norwegian Army . As the shipping costs of the complete tank would be too expensive , only the chassis was imported . As adding the original steel armour would cost another NOK 50 , 000 , iron plates were used instead . In addition , the steering levers were replaced with a steering wheel . The engine of the tank proved unreliable and at best gave a top speed of . The brakes were also found to be too weak , with the tank once ending up crashed against a tree during an field exercise in Trøndelag . Together with an experimental platoon of locally manufactured armoured cars " Rikstanken " formed the Norwegian cavalry ' s armoured force . " Rikstanken " and the three armoured cars took part in all the Norwegian Army ' s exercises in 1938 and 1939 . The armoured vehicles moved around to the different dragoon regiments in Norwegian Army . In a 1939 lecture at the Oslo Militære Samfund , Colonel Christopher Fougner pointed out that the single tank in the Norwegian armoury was completely insufficient to train the country ' s soldiers in anti - armour warfare . Colonel Fougner warned that if more tanks and armoured vehicles were not expressly acquired , then the first tank most Norwegian soldiers would see would belong to an attacking enemy army . On 9 April 1940 , when the Germans invaded Norway , the tank and the three armoured cars were stored in the depot of Dragoon Regiment 1 at Gardermoen . When Dragoon Regiment 1 finished its mobilization at 0300hrs on 10 April and moved out to oppose the invading German forces they left both the tank and the armoured cars behind . The tank and the armoured cars were captured by the advancing Germans and disappeared from records , after having been a popular object for souvenir photos for German troops at Gardermoen in May 1940 .