Lorraine 5t – French one-manned "Ontos"

SiberianSnakeSIB · February 27, 2026, 8:18pm

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Before I’d start, I’d like to thank three people for providing historical and technical information for this vehicle:

@LeGrandSarrazin – providing the historical introduction into «engin des intervalles» project
@Colasix and Guillaume – providing technical documentation on the vehicle
Marisa Belhote (from Tank Encyclopedia) – providing detailed historical information on «engin des intervalles» and «engin leger de combat» programmes

Today I’d like to present you a French light tank destroyer designed by the Lorraine company – the “chenillette 5 tonnes”, or Lorraine 5t!

A photograph of chenillette 5 tonnes Lorraine

History:

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In July 1952, French marshal Alphonse Juin has proposed to launch a program to design a cheap, light, compact vehicle armed with recoilless rifle to effectively engage any armored target at the distance between 600 and 1000 meters, and provide fire support for the infantry, while protecting it’s own crew from infantry fire and lightest shrapnel. The French military commission has accepted his request, and officially launched engin des intervalles program in March 1953. It was meant to provide the gaps between areas of active allied tank force presence with cheaper and speedy armored units.

Multiple companies, such as AMX, Brunon-Valette, Fouga, Hotchkiss and Lorraine, have proposed their designs to the military. Fouga had released the microscopic, yet two-manned VP90, Brunon-Valette’s engineer Even had designed multiple proposals on so-called “ELC Even 120”, turreted and also two-manned, while Lorraine ended up designing both one-manned and two-manned versions of their «chenillette 5 tonnes» (English: 5-tonne tankette), however, only the one man version has been assembled in June 1953.

A rare, but very cool photo featuring Lorraine 40t, Obusier de 155 Lorraine, Canon d’assaut Lorraine and Lorraine 5t at production stage, the baby being on the right:

Lorraine 5t resembled a highly mobile – both in terms of maneurability and speed, vehicle, armed with six recoilless 105mm rifles designed by Roanne arsenal. The six rifles would be pared with two Reibel machine guns in fixed construction. Vehicle would get rolled armor of 7 mm thickness (with 10 mm cast transmission cover in the front), protecting a single driver-gunner in the rear from the infantry fire. The engine and transmission were set to let the vehicle develop a max speed of 80 (!) kilometers per hour.
The most amazing thing about it (unless you’ve already read about Fouga VP90) is it’s size: it stands at 1.3 meters tall – lower than any turreted tank you may have seen!

Lorraine had also made a mock-up of two-manned vehicle of the similar construction, but as the ‘engin des intervalles’ was coming to an end, and the ‘engin leger de combat’ project featuring light vehicles with more accurate, classic guns would be in power, Lorraine would abandon their project entirely.

Technical information:

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Operator country: France
Full name: engin des intervalles – chenillette 5 tonnes
Short name: Lorraine 5t
Size specifications:
– Length: 3.82 m
– Width: 2.05 m
– Height: 1.33 m
– Ground clearance: 28 cm
Protection:
– Front: 10 mm CHA
– Sides: 7 mm RHA
– Rear: 7 mm RHA
Armament:
– 6x 105 mm ARE (arsenal de Roanne) recoilless rifles, ammo capacity: 18 rounds (HEAT)
– 2x 7.5 mm MAC 1931 Reibel machine guns, ammo capacity: at least 300 rounds (“spotting rifle”)
Horizontal traverse: ±90 degrees
Vertical traverse: -5…+13 degrees
Engine: Panhard, gasoline, opposed piston 8-cylinder, air-cooled
Power: 130 PS / 4000 RPM
Gear max speed, at 4000 RPM:
– 1 - 4,4 km/h
– 2 - 6.35 km/h
– 3 - 9.2 km/h
– 4 - 13.1 km/h
– 5 - 18.8 km/h
– 6 - 27 km/h
– 7 - 38.8 km/h
– 8 - 55.7 km/h
– 9 - 80 km/h
Suspension: torsion bar
Radio kit: SCR 300

Gallery:

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Top-down view on Lorraine 5t. The machine gun fixations, turret form, and length are clearly visible from here:
Interior of Lorraine 5t driver-gunner position:
Front and side view on Lorraine 5t chassis:
3D-model of Lorraine 5t, based on a few photos and blueprints. Sadly, I was too silly to not make rubber tires separate and color them black: