With very tight restrictions on spending, tank development in the U.S. was limited to a couple of test vehicles a year.

The mechanization of the army was promoted by General Douglas MacArthur (at the time the Chief of Staff of the US Army) who believed that the cavalry should have tanks for an exploiting role rather than acting in support of the infantry.

At the same time, they built a light tank similar to the T2 for the cavalry – the T5 combat car.

The only major difference between the two was that the T5 used vertical volute suspension while the T2 had leaf springs as on the Vickers.

Together with a different engine and improved turret, this produced the M2 combat car.