Universal Carriers were usually used for transporting personnel and equipment, mostly support weapons, or as machine gun platforms.

The VA.D50 had an armoured box at the front for driver and a gunner and bench seating at the back for the gun crew.

Small turns moved the crosstube that carried the front road wheel bogies laterally, warping the track so the vehicle drifted to that side.

The hull in front of the commander's position jutted forward to give room for the Bren light machine gun (or other armaments) to fire through a simple slit.

The production of a single model came to be preferred and the Universal design appeared in 1940; this was the most widely produced of the carriers.

With the introduction of the Universal, production in the UK was undertaken by Aveling-Barford, Ford, Sentinel, Thornycroft, and Wolseley Motors.

[10] Although the theory and policy was that the carrier was a "fire power transport" and the crew would dismount to fight, practice differed.

It could carry machine guns, anti-tank rifles, mortars, infantrymen, supplies, artillery and observation equipment.

Universal and the earlier Bren carriers were used by Australian Army units in the Western Desert campaign.

[16] Australian Universal Carriers were deployed to the Western Desert, Egypt during August 1942 serving as command vehicles for the 9th Divisional Cavalry Regiment.

A total of around sixty Bren No.2 Carriers and Belgian Army Vickers Utility Tractors were converted into demolition vehicles.

Carrying a large explosive charge, these would be driven up to enemy positions under remote control and detonated, destroying both themselves and the target.

An attempted conversion to self-propelled artillery consisting of a single T16 carrier fitted with a six-Model 1968 recoilless gun mount was developed in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

[citation needed] Bren carriers captured by the Italians in the field were often fitted with Breda M37 machine guns.

The intention was to drive the Mantis up to a wall or hedgerow, elevate the gun, and fire over the obstacle from a position of safety.