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A French-built light tank of World War I, first fielded in 1917. Much-imitated during and after the war, the FT was the first tank to be laid out in what is recognized today as the standard tank format (crew in front, engine in back, main armament in a rotating turret on top). A few were still in service during World War II.
As the first tank to employ what became the standard layout, the FT was influential well after its long service life. American, Soviet, and German tanks of the inter-war era were all derived (sometimes quite directly) from the FT, and virtually every tank in the modern era still uses the same basic configuration (albeit on a much grander scale).
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