Fast attack craft A fast attack craft ( FAC ) is a small , fast , agile and offensive warship armed with anti - ship missiles , gun or torpedo es . FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all - round defensive capabilities to survive in blue water . The size of the vessel also limits the fuel , stores and water supplies . In size they are usually between 50 – 400 tonnes and can reach speeds of 25 – 50 knots . A fast attack craft ' s main advantage over other warship types is its affordability . Many FACs can be deployed at a relatively low cost , allowing a navy which is at a disadvantage to effectively defend itself against a larger adversary . A small boat , when equipped with the same weapons as its larger counterpart , can pose a serious threat to even the largest of capital ships . History . As early as the mid - 19th century , the Jeune École ' s " poussiere navale " theory called for a great number of small , agile vessels to break up invading fleets of larger vessels . The idea was first put into action in the 1870s with the steam powered torpedo boat , which was produced in large numbers by both the Royal Navy and the Marine Nationale . These new vessels proved especially susceptible to rough seas and to have limited utility in scouting due to their short endurance and low bridges . The potential threat was entirely extinguished with the introduction of the Torpedo Boat Destroyer ( TBD ) in 1893 , a larger vessel , it could mount guns capable of destroying the torpedo boat before it was within range to use its own weapons . The idea was revived shortly before World War I with the craft using new gasoline engines . Italy and Great Britain were at the forefront of this design , with the Coastal Motor Boat ( CMB ) and the " Motobarca Armata Silurante " ( MAS ) ( Italian : " Torpedo Armed Motorboat " ) . The outstanding achievement of the class was the sinking of the Austro - Hungarian battleship SMS " Szent István " by " MAS . 15 " on June 10 , 1918 . The equivalent achievement for the CMBs was a lesser success ; during the Russian Civil War CMBs attacked the Red Fleet at anchor at Kronstadt on June 18 , 1919 , sinking the cruiser " Pamiat Azova " for the loss of four craft . The design matured in the mid - 1930s as the Motor Torpedo Boat s ( MTBs ) and Motor Gun Boat s ( MGBs ) of the Royal Navy , the PT boat s of the US Navy , and the E - boats ( " Schnellboote " ) of the " Kriegsmarine " . All types saw extensive use during World War II but were limited in effectiveness due to the increasing threat of aircraft . After WW2 , the use of this kind of craft steadily declined in the USA and Britain , despite the introduction of safer diesel engines to replace the highly flammable gasoline ones , although the Soviet Union still had large numbers of MGBs and MTBs in service . Missile boats . With the development of the anti - ship missile FACs were reborn in the Soviet Union as missile boats or missile cutters . The first few missile boats were originally torpedo boats , with the torpedo tubes replaced by missile launchers . Again , small fast craft could attack and destroy a major warship . The idea was first tested by the Soviet Union as Project 183R which , in August 1957 , produced the Komar - class which mounted two P - 15 Termit missiles in box - launchers on a 25 m hull backed with a twin 25 mm gun . Four diesels gave the Komars 4 , 800 bhp and a top speed of around 40 knots . Endurance was limited to 1000 nm at 12 knots and the vessels had supplies for only five days at sea . 110 Komar - class vessels were produced , while over 400 examples were built of the following Osa - class with a significant portion of the total being sold to pro - Soviet nations . Two Egyptian Komar missile boats sank the Israeli destroyer INS " Eilat " on October 21 , 1967 as she sailed too close to Port Said . Five Israeli Sa ' ar 3 - class missile boat s and Sa ' ar 4 - class missile boat s sank one Syrian torpedo boat , one minesweeper , two Komar and one Osa class missile boat s in the Battle of Latakia on October 7 / 8 , 1973 . Indian FACs of the Vidyut class ( an Osa variant ) attacked a Pakistani naval base on two occasions in December 1971 , sinking a total of four ships ; one destroyer ( " Khaibar " ) , one minesweeper ( " Muhafiz " ) and two merchantmen ( " Venus " and " Harmattan " ) , and damaging a further two vessels ( " Gulf Star " and " Dacca " ) . The Soviet FACs prompted a NATO response , which became more intense after the sinking of the " Eilat " . The Germans and French worked together to produce a new FAC , resulting in 1968 in the " Combattante II " class . Built on a 47 or 49 meter hull with 12 , 000 bhp of MTU diesel engines driving four shafts ; a common layout would have four MM - 38 Exocet missiles in two sets of two box launchers , in line and offset to the right and left with a 76 mm gun forward and 40 mm twin guns aft . Built until 1974 , a total of 68 " Combattante II " s were launched . The design was immediately followed by the " Combattante III " ( 1975 – 90 ) which added 9 meters to hull length but kept the same armaments ( + two twin 30 mm guns ) , 43 of this type were produced . A great many other shipyards produced their own versions of the " Combattante " , notably the Israeli " Sa ' ar " / " Reshef " variants . At the Battle of Bubiyan in 1991 Iraqi FACs were destroyed by British air - to - surface missile s . Later designs , such as the German " Gepard " class and Finnish " Hamina " class are equipped with surface - to - air missile s and countermeasures . Size has also increased , some designs reaching up to corvette size , 800 tonnes including a helicopter , giving them extended modes of operation . In April 1996 during Israel ' s Operation Grapes of Wrath , IDF naval forces used Sa ' ar 4 and Sa ' ar 4 . 5 boats to shell the Lebanese coast with 76 mm fire , in conjunction with artillery and air attacks . Iran and North Korea have some of the largest numbers of FACs in operation today . North Korea alone operates more than 300 , while Iran have been seen developing " swarm boats " to be used as harassing vessels in the heavily contested littoral waters of the Persian Gulf . To counter the threat , the US Navy has been developing an ASUW Littoral Defensive Anti Surface Warfare doctrine , along with vessels such as the littoral combat ship .