The Raketenjagdpanzer 2 or Raketenjagdpanzer SS-11 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 ...

employed from 1967 to 1982 and equipped with

Nord SS.11 The SS.11, or AS.11, known as AGM-22 in American service, is a French manual command to line of sight wire-guided anti-tank missile manufactured by Nord Aviation. The missile entered service with the French Army in 1956. Production of the SS. ...

guided anti tank missiles. It was developed at the same time as the

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 of ...

and the

Marder Marder may refer to: German military vehicles * A series of World War II tank destroyers: ** Marder I ** Marder II ** Marder III * Marder (IFV), a modern infantry fighting vehicle * Marder (submarine), a World War II midget submarine People with ...

, and shares a similar chassis with them.

Overview

The vehicle prototypes were developed between 1963 and 1965 and between 1967 and 1968,

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...

and

Hanomag Hanomag (Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, ) was a German producer of steam locomotives, tractors, trucks and military vehicles in Hanover. Hanomag first achieved international fame by delivering numerous steam locomotives to Finland, Romania and B ...

built 318 ''Raketenjagdpanzer 2'' for 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 ...

. Starting around 1978, 316 of them were upgraded with additional

armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or fr ...

and a new missile system, and redesignated as Raketenjagdpanzer

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 ...

Armament

The vehicle was armed with two launch rails for the Nord SS.11 antitank guided missile, and two

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 ...

machine guns. The machine guns were mounted in the bow and as an anti-aircraft weapon on top of the vehicle. The ''Raketenjagdpanzer 2'' carried fourteen missiles, twelve of which were mounted in containers inside the vehicle while the other two were attached to the launch rails. The combined traverse of both launch rails covered 180 degrees. The vehicle's mission was to engage enemy tanks at ranges between 1.5 and 3 kilometers where the range and accuracy of tank cannon were inferior to that of the SS.11 missile. The maximum effective range of the SS.11 was around 3,000 meters. The SS.11 missile could penetrate 60 centimeters of rolled homogeneous armour.

Service in the Bundeswehr

The

first operationally deployed the ''Raketenjagdpanzer 2'' in 1967. From 1968 forward, the tank destroyer companies of the

Panzergrenadier ''Panzergrenadier'' (), abbreviated as ''PzG'' (WWII) or ''PzGren'' (modern), meaning '' "Armour"-ed fighting vehicle "Grenadier"'', is a German term for mechanized infantry units of armoured forces who specialize in fighting from and in conjunc ...

(armored infantry) brigades were equipped with eight of these vehicles. At the same time, tank destroyer companies of the Panzer brigades received thirteen ''Raketenjagdpanzer 2''. Between 1978 and 1982, the ''Raketenjagdpanzer 2'' vehicles were upgraded to

Euromissile HOT The HOT (French: ''Haut subsonique Optiquement Téléguidé Tiré d'un Tube'', or High Subsonic, Optical, Remote-Guided, Tube-Launched) is a second-generation long-range anti-tank missile system. It was originally developed to replace the older ...

-carrying Jaguar 1 tank destroyers.

External links

Panzerbär
(de)

{{Fire support vehicles Tank destroyers of Germany Armoured fighting vehicles of Germany Military vehicles introduced in the 1960s