After World War II, the new Czechoslovak Army collected a large number of abandoned German armored vehicles with plans to rehabilitate some of them for domestic use or for export. A total of about 50 PzKpfw 38(t) tanks were located, some of them ex-Slovak tanks and some in workshops. Of these, 31 were put back in running order and designated as LT-38/37, the “/37” indicating the 37mm gun. They were deployed with the 21. and 22. tankové brigády with the 1.motorizované divize in Prague and the 3. motorizované divize in Hodonín. They remained in service into the 1950s, when they were replaced by Soviet equipment. At least two were still in service as training tanks with the Jan Žižka military school in Trocnov as late as 1959.
The Czechoslovak armaments industry hoped to re-establish itself in the world export market after World War II, and the ČKD company began offering armored vehicles for international sale. The first success came in 1946 when a deal was signed with Switzerland for the production of 100 Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer assault guns as the Panzerjäger G 13. A deal to sell 20 new AH-IVb tankettes and 20 LTP light tanks to Bolivia fell through for political reasons, but 20 new Praga AH-IV Hb tankettes were sold to Ethiopia in 1950. There was some hope to sell a light reconnaissance tank based on the Jagdpanzer 38 chassis to Switzerland and other export clients, armed with a new Škoda 57mm gun. A mock-up of this tank, known as the TNH-57, was built in 1949 on the fifth prototype of the surviving PzKpfw 38(t) n.A prototype. The front hull superstructure was widened to permit an enlarged turret race, and a new and larger turret was developed. This project eventually fell into limbo after the Communist takeover of the Czechoslovak government, and the Soviet insistence that the Czechoslovak defense industry manufacture Soviet weapons under license. Andrej Surin, who had designed the PzKpfw 38(t), led the program to adapt the Soviet T-34-85 tank to Czechoslovak manufacture at ČKD and the new ZVJS plant in Martin starting in 1953. So ended independent Czechoslovak tank design.
The fifth PzKpfw 38(t) neue Ausführung prototype was rebuilt as the TNH-57 light tank in 1949 in hopes of soliciting export interest. In the event, the rise of the Communist government put an end to independent Czechoslovak tank development before production could start. This illustration shows the intended configuration of the tank.