| The Verdeja was designed by the commander of artillery D. Felix Verdeja Bardales. It was designed to be built using as many components already in production as possible and
using the maximum crew protection design of having the engine up front and turret at the rear. Construction began in 1938 in Cariņena (a village of the province of Zaragoza)
and afterwards it was completed in Zaragoza, The prototype was later reworked into several different designs.
Trials proved the design to be satisfactory and the goverment of General Franco considered building it in a new factory in Bilbao. However, the end of the Civil War stopped
the immediate construction of the Verdeja as there were other priorities based on the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the war. The original plan to build 30 examples
in the factories of Bilbao was abandoned in April 1939 but in December 1940 construction was approved and the War Ministry asked for 1,000 to be built. By July 1941 it had been
agreed that Armamento de Aviacion S.A., ADASA, would build the first 100, but nothing came of it. Although the project continued in one way or another until the mid-1950s the
beginning of American aid, including M47s, in 1954 nullified the need for any indigenous light tank.
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