Raketenjagdpanzer 2 (RakJPz 2) / SS-11

Missile Jagdpanzer 2 (RakJPz 2) / SS-11 History

The Rocket Fighter 2 (RakJPz 2) (aka "Rocket Hunter SS-11") was a cold war (1947-1991) West German tracked fighting vehicle for tank destroyers. The enemy at that time was still Soviet tank troops stationed in East Germany and throughout the region.

Developed in the 1960s and introduced around 1967, the RakJPz 2 was in service with West German armored forces until 1982, when part of its inventory was upgraded to the upgraded Jaguar 1 model and its Euromissile HOT anti-tank missile weapon.

The vehicle weighs 23 tonnes and is compact in size, measuring 8.75m long, 2.98m wide and 2.1m high to the roofline. The four crew members - driver, commander, gunner and loader - are inside the vehicle, protected by armor ranging from 8mm to 50mm on various fairings.

The hull surface is sloped inward to provide basic ballistic protection, but the track and wheel units along the sides of the hull are not fitted with side skirts. The chassis of the RakJPz 2 is the same as that of the Marder Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) and the Kanonenjagdpanzer/Jagdpanzer Kanone 90mm Heavy Tank Destroyer (both detailed elsewhere on this page).

The RakJPz 2 carry 8 x smoke grenade launchers to protect their efforts, and 2 x 7.62mm MG3 medium machine guns to protect against infantry attacks (one mounted on the bow, the other on top of the fuselage). However, its primary weapon is an SS, which carries 11 rocket launchers and 14 reloads.

The SS.11 was developed by Nord Aviation in 1953 and approximately 180,000 missiles were produced from 1956 to the mid-1980s. The 30kg 165mm gun offered good long-range firepower and armor penetration up to 3,000m for its time. The warhead includes a Type 140C anti-tank gun, weighing 6.8kg and capable of repelling 600mm.

Guidance is manual line-of-sight command (MCLOS), which means the operator manually participates in the tracking/location process during missile flight. The SS.11 is essentially the base weapon of the RakJPz 2 vehicle.

The RakJPz 2 pilot vehicle was tested from 1963 to 1965, before Henschel and Hanomag started building the fleet in 1967, with 318 completed. The fleet remained in service until 1978, when more armor was added and a switch to the HOT ATGM system - leading to the entry of the new "Jaguar 1" series (described in detail elsewhere on this site).

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

for everyone else in our database)

Armor

14 x SS.11 ATGM missiles

2,000 x 7.62mm ammo

8 x Smoke Grenade

Changes