The

Raketenjagdpanzer Raketenjagdpanzer (missile armed tank hunter) is the designation of a range of German dedicated tank destroyers equipped with anti-tank guided missiles. Four different Raketenjagdpanzer have been used so far: * Raketenjagdpanzer 1 * Raketenjagdpanz ...

4 Jaguar 2 was a West German

tank destroyer A tank destroyer, tank hunter, tank killer, or self-propelled anti-tank gun is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a direct fire artillery gun or missile launcher, designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often wi ...

equipped with

anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

s. It was only operated by the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

History

From 1983 to 1985, 162

Kanonenjagdpanzer The Kanonenjagdpanzer (''KanJPz''; also known as Jagdpanzer Kanone 90mm, "tank destroyer, gun 90mm") was a West German Cold War tank destroyer. Its design was very similar to that of the World War II Jagdpanzer IV. History The first prototypes ...

s were converted to ''Raketenjagdpanzer 4'' Jaguar 2. This was done by removing the main gun, adding a

TOW Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. Th ...

launcher on the roof and adding applique armour. In 1989, the TOW missiles were replaced by the more potent TOW 2. In 1993, the Jaguar 2 tank destroyers were phased out in favour of the

Jaguar 1 The Raketenjagdpanzer (RakJPz 3) Jaguar 1 was a West German tank destroyer equipped with anti-tank guided missiles. From 1978 to 1982, 316 obsolete Raketenjagdpanzer 2 units were converted into Jaguar 1s by replacing the SS.11 missile system ...

A3, an upgraded version of the Jaguar 1.

Design

The Jaguar 2 is a

that follows the traditional

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

design of West German tank destroyers. It is a rather light vehicle based on the "''leichte Fahrzeugfamilie''"-chassis, which was also used by the SPz Marder and the

. It is an all-welded steel construction, which has maximum thickness of 50 mm.

Protection

The base armour is formed by the

chassis. It was made of welded steel and had a thickness of 10 to 50 mm steel. When the Kanonenjagdpanzers were upgraded,

applique armour Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fight ...

, consisting of perforated steel plates coated in a rubber-like substance, was fastened shock-mounted on the front of the vehicle and the side of the

structure.

Leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

-like side-skirts were also added. Further protection is provided by eight smoke dischargers, which are now installed on the

glacis A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in bastion fort, early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More genera ...

instead of behind the casemate. The Jaguar 2's survivability is still mainly reliant on its low profile, high speed and long combat range, which exceeded the combat range of contemporary tanks.

Armament

The Jaguar 2 is armed with a TOW-launcher, an anti-aircraft

MG3 The MG 3 is a German general-purpose machine gun chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. The weapon's design is derived from the World War II era MG 42 ''Einheitsmaschinengewehr'' (Universal machine gun) that fired the 7.92×57mm Mauser r ...

and an

A1 in the hull. The TOW missile allows it to fight enemy tanks at long range; the maximum combat range was considered to be 3,750 m.deutschesheer.de
/ref> In 1989, the TOW missiles were replaced by the more powerful TOW-2 missiles. Twelve missiles and 2,100

7.62mm The 7.62 mm caliber is a nominal caliber used for a number of different cartridges. Historically, this class of cartridge was commonly known as .30 caliber, the imperial unit and customary unit equivalent, and was most commonly used for i ...

rounds are stored inside the vehicle.

References

External links

FAS

{{Fire support vehicles Armoured fighting vehicles of Germany Tank destroyers of Germany Military vehicles introduced in the 1980s