Fast Attack: Still A Threat In The Littoral

Small, swift missile-bearing attack craft can do great damage at range if allowed to do so.

- Stephen W. Miller

Fast craft have received a great deal of attention since their well-publicised use by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf. Their wide naval use, however, goes back at least to the 1870s with development of the self-propelled torpedo. Today the missile boat has largely, but not totally, replaced the torpedo boat but these and other fast craft continue to fill a range of roles. Although the level of emphasis and numbers and types of boats differ in various navies, they remain an important asset.

Torpedoes to Missiles

The first true surface attack fast craft was the motor torpedo boat (MTB). These combined sleek hulls with large engines providing fast and agile boats that could attack larger ships using torpedoes. The idea was that a number of boats would attack together using their speed to quickly move into firing range, launch their torpedoes and turn away. The torpedo boats were viewed with great concern by the major naval powers with large capital ships. They responded by developing and install rapid firing naval guns on existing combatants, as well as, the design and launching of an entirely new ship class, the destroyer (originally called torpedo-boat destroyers).

Many navies then, as today, saw these fast boats as an inexpensive counter to major capital warships. However, despite their wide spread use in World War II and some successes they did not fully meet combat expectations in the attack role for which they were originally promoted. Most were retired or assigned patrol duties. The development of the anti-ship missile in the 1950 renewed interest in the fast craft replacing the torpedo with missiles that could be launched 50km and more from a target. Improvements have increased flight speeds to supersonic and ranges around 1000km are possible, although most are below 300km.