The sprung suspension which would allow a tank to travel faster over rough ground was the biggest improvement over the Renault.

The T-16 was deemed a failure, as it had problems with its transmission failing too often and its inability to cross trenches more than 1.5 m wide.

Meanwhile, the КБ ОАТ drew up plans for an improved version of the T-16 which was accepted for production in July as the T-18, with the tank additionally noted as an MS-1 ("Support vehicle, small, type 1").

The T-18s armament stayed the same as that found on the Renault FT and T-16, the French 37 mm Model 28, mounted in a Hotchkiss-system mantlet.

That, coupled with a lack of optical sights, gave the T-18 little chance of taking out larger, better armoured opponents.

However, with its 10–12 rounds per minute rate of fire and with the use of shrapnel projectiles it proved capable of combating infantry and soft vehicles.

Demonstration of the T-18 took place in mid-May 1927, but in combat tests its ability to move over rough terrain and fight effectively were not immediately apparent.

A special commission comprising representatives of the Supreme Economic Council Mobupravleniya, OAT factory "Bolshevik", Artupravleniya, and the headquarters of the Red Army were on hand for the tests.

During trials to overcome obstacles the T-18 behaved no better than the FT, with its biggest problem being trenches or ditches wider than 2 m and deeper than approximately 1.2 m. The machines often became stuck trying to cross these obstacles and needed to be pulled out by a tractor or another tank.

[1] Service in the forces of the first Soviet tanks did not leave behind a large number of clear combat examples.

An experimental company equipped with T-18s took part in defending the Far Eastern Railway against Manchurian forces in 1929.

Contrary to popular belief, tanks with 45 mm guns were never called T-18M; the T-18M was a 1938 prototype with simpler cupola, different drive sprocket, GAZ-M1 50 hp engine and removed rear bustle, which never reached production.

In November 1929 ANII K. M. Ivanov, commissioned by the UMM RKKA produced a self-propelled gun based on the T-18, as well as the ammunition carrier for it.

However, due to the small ammunition capability and the limitations of the T-18 (a narrow gauge chassis and a high center of gravity) the design was abandoned in favor of larger and better self-propelled gun designs and further work on the SU-18 was stopped.