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Anti-tank vehicles made their first major appearance in World War II. As combatants developed effective armoured vehicles and tactics to use them, there were a number of experiments at producing vehicles specifically designed to stop enemy tanks.
These tank desroyers fell broadly into two categories. Some were designed to be faster and cheaper than a medium tank while still able to destroy heavy armour at long range. The second design option was to create a heavily-armoured vehicle that was more effective in armoured combat than the enemy tanks.
In German and Soviet designs the traditional turret was removed from an existing tank design, and a larger gun was mounted with a limited traverse in the hull. The weight and space savings of removing the turret allowed a smaller chassis to carry a larger gun. This was used by both forces to keep older designs competitive in the rapidly up-armoring of all AFV's that took place during the war.
For instance, the German Panzer I was obsolete before the war even started, with thin armor and only machine guns for armament. Yet they were forced into battle during the invasion of Poland, where they were found to be deathtraps. Before the invasion of France, 202 were rebuilt with a Czech 47 mm gun, becoming the Panzerjäger I. Soon the same sort of thing happened to the Panzer II during Operation Barbarossa: crews took to using captured Soviet 76.2mm anti-tank guns on them in various makeshift mountings in order to allow them stand off from their opposition. In this form they were later modified at the factory, producing the Marder II. Whereas the Panzerjäger concept used the chassis of obsolescent tanks, dedicated Jagdpanzer versions of tanks were developed later in the war. The Jagdpanther version of the Panther tank is considered the best of the Jagdpanzers.
The resulting US designs retained the turret, but left it open on top for more working room with the larger gun. The larger guns required a weight to be added to the rear of the turret, which can be seen on designs like the M10. The open top made them particularly vunerable to even handguns, and the very idea of independent anti-tank groups was found unworkable. By 1944 the "basic" Sherman was being upgunned in the field to be a Sherman Firefly, and by the end of that year heavier guns were being mounted on production Shermans.
Post-war designs have focused almost entirely on weight. With the weight of combat capable tanks growing to the 50 to 70 tonne range, airborneAirborne means carried by air, (e. airborne particles, airborne pollution) or carried in or on aircraft, (e. airborne radar). An aircraft is said to be airborne when it is in the air after taking off. Airborne refers also to the military troops trained an forces were unable to deploy reasonable anti-tank forces. The result was a number of attempts to make a light vehicle with either recoilless or wire-guided missiles as armament, including the OntosOntos M50A1 ''The 50-cal spotting rifles can be seen on the upper guns The Ontos technically the 106mm Self-propelled Rifle M50 was a light anti-tank vehicle developed in the US in the 1950s. It mounted six 106mm recoilless rifles as its main armament, wh and SheridanM551A1 Sheridan Country Of Origin: United States Designation:Light Tank Configuration:Track Manufacturer: Crew:4 Length:20. 6 feet Width:9. 2 feet Height:7. 6 feet Weight: 17,5 t Clearance: mm Fording: mm Obstacle: mm Trench: m Speed: 43 mph (road) km/h (. However neither of these had the armor needed to protect them in a fight, so more modern designs simply place the same weapons on a normal APCEast German BRDMs on parade during celebrations of the 40th anniversary of East Germany in 1989 Armoured personnel carriers (APCs) are light armoured fighting vehicles for the transport of infantry. They usually have only a machine gun although variants c chassis. For example, the US Army has vehicles (such as the M113 armored personnel carrier), which may mount anti-tank missiles for defense, but that is not their primary role, which is left to vehicles like the M901 "Improved TOW Vehicle," with its thermal imaging sights and TOW heavy wire-guided antitank missile launcher. Vehicles similar in concept have also been built in Russia, mostly built on the chassis of the old BRDM light armored car, and in Germany the Jagdpanzer Rakete series of tank destroyers built on the chassis of the Marder armored personnel carrier has been armed with a variety of heavy wire-guided antitank missiles.
With the onset of guided anti-tank missiles in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which enabled most vehciles to mount some sort of anti-tank weapon, the concept of the tank destroyer as a separate class of armored vehicle gradually disappeared.
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