Orlik 055 Polska tankietka prototypowa TKW

TKW or TKW-1 was a Polish prototype tankette from the interwar period. Vehicle prototypes were made in the period 1932-1935. The TKW was probably powered by a single 40hp Ford A engine. The vehicle is armed with a single wz.25 or wz.30 7.92 mm machinegun mounted in a rotating turret.

The TKW was a modification of the TK-3 tankette already in use in the Polish Army. The fundamental change consisted in placing the main armament in the rotating turret, which forced the reconstruction and modernization of the central part of the hull. Better optical equipment of the vehicle was also used. Besides - many TKW elements were similar to the TK-3 components. The creation of the TKW was determined by the desire to create a vehicle with greater combat properties and a much better angle of fire for machine guns. However, despite several years of work, no satisfactory results were achieved - the TKW turned out to be an overloaded vehicle, not ensuring proper communication between the crew members. For these reasons, work on it was canceled, and the tankettes in the Polish Army were to be replaced by the 4TP tank.