The ultimate manifestation of German armored might was undoubtedly the Jagdtiger, the largest and heaviest armored vehicle produced during World War II. It was based on the chassis of the Tiger II tank and like all German tank destroyers, featured a fixed superstructure to reduce production costs. In this case, armament was the massive 12.8cm PaK 43, an improvement even compared to the Tiger II's long-barreled 8.8cm gun. Although this fired at a lower velocity as the 8.8cm, the heavier weight allowed for higher armor penetration at longer distances making it easily the most deadly anti-tank gun of the war. To protect the crew, an unprecedented maximum armor thickness of 250 mm was provided to the already sloped superstructure. Aside from this, the hull had only minor differences to the Tiger II aside from being slightly lengthened. As a result of the vehicle's weight, the engine and transmission were constantly overstressed which was a liability on the battlefield. This, coupled by the fact that it was only built in low numbers (less than 100) meant that the Jagdtiger had a negligible impact on the war despite its fearsome power.

Initial orders for a new tank destroyer were given in 1943 with the first two prototypes featuring a Porsche-designed longitudinal torsion bar suspension with eight road wheels. This was changed into Henschel-designed torsion bars with nine road wheels in the production Jagdtiger (SdKfz 186), the only variant built.