A self-propelled anti-tank gun, or tank destroyer, is a type of armored fighting vehicle designed specifically to engage enemy armored vehicles. Many have been produced as a tank-like vehicle, but with light armor and capable of higher speed, with a gun or missile launcher. Many lack turrets. Aiming in the horizontal plane is achieved partially by maneuvering the entire vehicle in the turretless models, with final fine adjustments possible using a limited-traverse gun mount.Tank destroyers are used primarily to provide anti-tank support in combat operations but do not fit all the criteria of a tank. They may mount a high-velocity anti-tank gun but have an open turret, no turret at all, or run on wheels instead of tracks. Vehicles which carry an anti-tank guided missile launcher are also referred to as ATGM carriers.Gun-armed tank destroyers had been largely replaced by the more general-purpose main battle tanks since World War II, but lightly-armored ATGM (anti-tank guided missile) carriers are used for supplementary long-range anti-tank capabilities. Modern tank destroyers primarily rely on missiles instead of guns to destroy tanks.

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