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S71 Gepard, Gepard class fast attack craft

A Fast Attack Craft (FAC) (German: Schnellboot) is a small (150 to 400 tonnes), fast (up to ca. 40 knots) ship for offensive tasks, mainly equipped with surface-to-surface missiles and/or anti-ship torpedoes.

Because of their relatively small size, FACs are generally limited to coastal areas and relatively calm sea states. For example, navies operating in the Mediterranean and South East Asia use them, but in the North Sea and the oceans they are seen far less often.

Small offensive ships were already in use during the American Civil War. These were still wooden boats with an explosive charge mounted on a long pole at the bow of the boat and thus not very effective.

As a result of the invention of the self-propelled torpedo at the end of the 19th century, the much more useful and dangerous torpedo boat came into existence. More developed versions were later used in both world wars.

After World War II, the use of this kind of craft steadily declined, 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 and 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 brought an important fault in the FAC design philosophy to light 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 to be of much use.

In recent years FACs have been increasingly equipped with surface-to-air missiles and they have become bigger - up to ca. 800 tonnes. The biggest FACs are even capable of carrying a helicopter.