Entering World War I in April 1917 without its own tanks, the United States quickly recognized the need for both light and heavy tanks under Gen. John Pershing's directive. An Anglo-American effort to develop a new heavy tank was outpaced by the urgent need for armor, leading to the decision to manufacture the French Renault FT light tank in the U.S. Despite an ambitious requirement initially set at 1,200 and later increased to 4,400 tanks, the project faced significant setbacks due to metric-imperial specification differences, poor coordination, and bureaucratic delays. The first American-made tanks, the M1917s, did not reach the front until after the war's end, with production and delivery issues resulting in just 950 M1917s being built post-war by American companies. These were intended to complement the Renault FTs, with a total of about 200 being brought back from France, highlighting the challenges of wartime production and international collaboration.