Renault NC27

In 1923, Louis Renault had obtained an order to build two new prototypes as a parallel modification project, with the factory designation Renault NC; it was intended to feature not only an improved suspension system but also a stronger engine. Like “FT”, “NC” is a combination of code letters devoid of any meaning. One prototype happened to be finished second, in December 1925, and was therefore called the NC2. It was fitted with a modified Kégresse leaf spring suspension and a 62 hp engine. It had as an alternative designation Renault Modèle 24/25, because Renault proposed to build it as a possible “fast tank” as specified in Plan 1924 of the French Cavalry. This line of development was discontinued however. The first prototype to be ready, thus named the NC1, had a different suspension system, with twelve wheels and three large vertical volute springs per side. It allowed for a top speed of 18.5 km/h, making it in 1926 the fastest French tank ever developed.

As had been the case for the Renault FT Kégresse, this project was still primarily intended to result in a modification proposal to rebuild existing Renault FTs. In 1926 it transpired that the Char de Bataille project, that later resulted in the Char B1, was evolving into a far heavier tank than at first intended. It would be impossible to procure this heavier design in sufficient numbers and therefore specifications were made in the Infantry Plan 1926 for a new Char léger d’accompagnement d’infanterie, a “light infantry support tank”. Renault immediately tried to offer his NC1, now called the Renault Modèle 26/27, as the logical candidate for this role.

Renault also tried to open foreign markets. In 1928 he sold a single NC prototype to Sweden, in that country named the Stridsvagn fm/28. In 1929 he obtained an order of ten vehicles for Japan, there called the Renault Otsu-Gata (“Type B”); and 24 more were according to some sources delivered to Poland, fitted with 25 mm side armour, bringing the weight from 7.5 to 9.5 metric tons. In 1930, Japan received the Renault NC tanks ordered.[1] In addition, in the early 1930s a single tank was delivered to Greece. All of these vehicles were described by postwar writers under the name NC27, but this was not a contemporary designation.