RakJPz 3 "Jaguar 1A3": Raketenjagdpanzer Pro

Armen_Lozone · June 7, 2025, 6:50pm

RakJPz 3 “Jaguar 1A3”

Would you like to see this in game?

Yes
No

0 voters

This suggestion is a mostly repost from the old forum with the permission of the original poster, @Zombificus

History

Beginning in 1978, 316 Raketenjagdpanzer 2s were upgraded by Thyssen-Henschel with spaced applique armour and the Euromissile HOT-3KS launcher (no relation to the HOT-3 missile, which entered service in 1998).

The 3KS launcher, initially fitted without other modifications to a pair of RakJPz 2s to create the RakJPz 2 (HOT) (the prototype for Jaguar 1), allowed the new vehicle to field the SACLOS-guided HOT missile, a superior weapon in both performance and ease of guidance than the French MCLOS SS.11 missiles that armed the earlier RakJPz 1 & 2. These served alongside the TOW-equipped RakJPz 4 Jaguar 2 (converted from obsolete JPz 4-5s) throughout the 1980s as the ultimate West German counter to Soviet armour besides the state-of-the-art Leopard 2 MBT, and after German reunification in 1991, they continued to serve.

While 1993 saw the retirement of the Jaguar 2, it also brought a new upgrade program for the Jaguar 1 that focused on addressing its poor night-fighting capabilities, primarily by adding a brand new thermal imaging device to the top of the vehicle, and introduced the 1992 HOT-2MP missile, which has far lower penetration but causes greater damage than the standard HOT-2 through the combination of incendiary and fragmentation effects.

In 1998, the HOT-3 missile entered service, providing the RakJPz 3 with a tandem-warhead ATGM for the first time; that year, Austria imported several missiles of this type to serve on their own non-upgraded Jaguar 1s (now retired). Though it is now retired by the Bundeswehr, marking the end of a tank destroyer family dating back to the 1960s, the RakJPz 3 Jaguar 1A3 is still a highly-advanced and capable ATGM carrier, made obsolete not by technology but by changes in military doctrine that now favours more multipurpose IFVs over highly-specialised Anti-Tank vehicles like the RaketenJagdPanzers.

Jaguar 1A0A1

In War Thunder

This vehicle would most likely be a side-grade to the Waffentrager Wiesel 1A2 TOW. While having some downsides such as its bigger size and lower mobility than the Wiesel, it has more armour as well as longer range and the King of all ATGMs, the HOT-3 with a tandem charge, 1250mm penetrating warhead. It also has more crew members hence one could argue it has more survivability.

Add-on Armour

No source seems to state the actual thickness of the applique plates installed on RakJPz 3 & 4, but through visual examination and comparison with similar armour on other German tanks, an estimate can be made.

Both Leopard A1A1 and Jaguar 1 have steel armour attached in an identical way, so as to provide an air gap which would defeat older shaped-charge projectiles, and just as Leopard A1A1 uses two distinct thicknesses for its armour, Jaguar 1 seems to as well. Ignoring the unique 35mm mantlet applique on the Leopard, which is visually distinct from Jaguar 1’s applique, Leopard A1A1 has 20mm thick applique armour on the turret cheeks, the armour on the mantlet sides, turret sides and rear is 10mm thick, and the side skirts over the tracks, which Jaguar 1 also has, are 5mm thick.

The UFP armour on the Jaguar may be higher, but until more information is acquired, the current estimate would be 20-30mm.

Because both Leopard A1A1 and Jaguar 1 share the same model of track guard, @Zombificus was able to use it as a rough estimate of scale for the rest of the vehicle, and based on this and the fact that the bottom edge of the frontal applique plate is easily visible in most photos, the frontal applique is, indeed, 20mm thick.

The side applique, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to extend as far from the original side armour as the frontal plate, and from rear views it seems significantly thinner (roughly half as thick), so once again I think it’s likely to match up with the thinner segments of A1A1’s applique at just 10mm. While there is no absolute evidence, it would make sense that a vehicle that reuses the Leopard A1A1’s side skirts would also use the same pre-developed types of applique armour, rather than a brand new design of some unique arbitrary thickness, especially since the two armour packages attach in exactly the same way and are visually very similar.

Ofcourse the figures should be verified by going to one of the museum examples and measuring the thickness in person, but until that is done, the above assumptions seem to be accurate enough.

Technical Specifications

—Survivability—

Crew: 4 (Gunner + Machine Gunner + Commander + Driver)
Smoke grenades: 8
Armour:

Front: 50+20 OR 30mm
Superstructure side 30+10mm
Hull Side: 30mm
Hull Rear: 30mm
UFP: 20mm
Roof: 10mm
Engine Deck: 5mm
Side Skirts: 5mm
Max. Fording Depth: 1.8m

—Mobility—

Weight: 25.5t
Engine: MTU MB 837 Aa V8
Power: 500 hp
P/W: 19.6hp/t
Top speed: 70 kmph
Suspension: Torsion bar

—Weaponry—
Primary Armament: Euromissile HOT-3KS ATGM launcher with rotary autoloader (8+12 missiles carried)
Secondary Armament: 1x MG3A1 in the hull, 1x MG3 in AA mount (3200 rpg)

—ATGM options—