Fast Attack Craft

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Skjold class patrol boat of the Royal Norwegian Navy, capable of speeds of 60 knots

Gepard class fast attack craft of German Navy.

Hamina class missile boat of the Finnish Navy.

A Fast Attack Craft (FAC) (German: Schnellboot) is a small (usually about 100 to 400 tonnes),^{[citation needed]} fast (up to ca. 40 knots), ship for offensive tasks, mainly equipped with surface-to-surface missiles and/or torpedoes.

Because of their relatively small size, FACs are generally limited to coastal areas and comparatively calm sea states. For example, navies operating in Asia and Europe use them, but in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans they are seen far less often.

History

This section requires expansion.

With the advent of the gasoline engine in the late 19th century it was possible to build small, fast boats for warfare. Italy and Great Britain were at the forefront of this design. The first such boats were armed with small guns, they were soon made more effective with self-propelled torpedoes. Initial effectiveness of the FAC was shown with the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István by the Italian MAS 15 in 1918.

After World War II, the use of this kind of craft steadily declined in the USA and Britain, although the Soviet Union still had large numbers of Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats in service. With the rise in the use of surface-to-surface missiles in the 1960s, interest in the use of FACs was renewed - first in the Soviet Union then in the west, especially in France and Germany. France also built large numbers of this type of craft for export.

The First Gulf War in 1991 highlighted a major flaw in FAC design philosophy after a group of Iraqi FACs were destroyed by British Lynx helicopters armed with Sea Skua missiles. FACs had almost no air defence systems and, even if they were equipped with an air defence radar, the small size of the ship meant that it could not be mounted high enough for it to be of much use. However, the German Gepard class fast attack craft are equipped with countermeasures, such as decoy and chaff launchers, and the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile system which gives them a good air defence capability. The Finnish Hamina class missile boats are each equipped with 8 Umkhonto missiles in VLS-cells that are capable of engaging incoming missiles and aircraft at up to 12 kilometers. The vessels also have the 57 Mk3 gun.

In recent years FACs have been increasingly equipped with surface-to-air missiles and they have become bigger - up to approximately 800 tonnes. The largest FACs can carry a helicopter.

See also

• Missile boat
• Torpedo boat
• E-Boat allied name for German Schnellboote
• Motor Torpedo Boat British small vessel of around 50 tons
• PT Boat similarly sized US craft of WW II
• Patrol boat

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