Some were little more than stopgap solutions, mounting an anti-tank gun on a tracked vehicle to give mobility, while others were more sophisticated designs. The resurgence of expeditionary warfare in the first two decades of the 21st century has seen the emergence of gun-armed wheeled vehicles, sometimes called 'protected gun systems', which may bear a superficial resemblance to tank destroyers, but are employed as direct fire support units typically providing support in low-intensity operations, as was done in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.ĭedicated anti-tank vehicles made their first major appearance in the Second World War as combatants developed effective armoured vehicles and tactics. However, lightly armoured anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) carriers are commonly used for supplementary long-range anti-tank work. Since World War II, gun-armed powerful tank destroyers have fallen out of favor as armies have favored multirole main battle tanks. Many are based on a tracked tank chassis, while others are wheeled. While tanks are designed for front-line combat, combining operational mobility and tactical offensive and defensive capabilities and performing all primary tasks of the armoured troops, the tank destroyer is specifically designed to take on enemy tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. As such, they are typically armed with a direct fire artillery gun, then called self-propelled anti-tank gun, or missile launcher, then called anti-tank missile carrier, and designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often with limited operational capacities.

A tank destroyer, tank hunter or tank killer is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, predominantly intended for anti-tank duties.

Should we have modern tank destroyers