Following on from the German wartime tradition of operating tank destroyers (Jagdpanzer), the West German Army, the Budeswehr, issued a requirement for a 90mm self-propelled anti-tank gun in the late 1950s.
This tank destroyer, also known as the Jagdpanzer Kanone 90, was first built by West Germany and took many of the design features and theories from the German tank destroyers of the Second World War. Some 770 vehicles were made by Hanomag and Henschel between 1965 and 1967.
The 90mm gun shared the same ammunition as the American M47 and M48 tanks. By the early 1980s the 90mm gun was considered too short ranged to be effective against the newest generation of Soviet tanks.
A number of these vehicles were converted to Raketejagdpanzer, armed with Anti-tank-guided Missiles. The Raketejagdpanzer had followed on from the Kanonenjagdpanzer and the converted vehicles supplemented the 370 that had already been built between 1967 and 1968.
