Un barco lanzamisiles (Missile boat), llamado también lancha lanzamisiles, es una nave pequeña armada con misiles antibuque. Siendo un barco pequeño, los barcos lanzamisiles son populares en las naciones que necesitan una Armada de bajo costo de mantenimiento. Son similares en concepto a los torpederos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial; de hecho, los primeros barcos lanzamisiles eran torpederos modificados que sustituyen dos o más tubos de torpedos por sistemas de misiles. Actualmente se emplean con gran éxito en patrulleras, lo que les aporta una gran funcionalidad a este tipo de embarcaciones dada su, ya de por sí, alta versatilidad al poseer una elevada velocidad y maniobrabilidad. De esta forma pueden actuar de interceptores no solo de embarcaciones pequeñas sino de otras de mayor envergadura e incluso ser consideradas como naves de ataque en grupos contra grandes buques, aunque todo esto a costa de un bajo blindaje, basando su defensa en su rapidez y capacidad de viraje.

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A missile boat or missile cutter is a small warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being a small craft, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming an inexpensive navy. They are similar in idea to the torpedo boats of World War II; in fact, the first missile boats were modified torpedo boats replacing two or more torpedo tubes with missile tubes. The doctrine behind the use of missile boats is based on the principle of mobility over defence and firepower. The advent of proper guided missile and electronic counter measure technologies gave birth to the idea that, because a guided missile (such as a guided artillery shell) is far more accurate than an unguided missile (such as an unguided artillery shell), warships should now be designed to outmaneuver their enemies and get to a better position first. Moreover, increasing the potency of naval artillery requires employing larger projectiles, which necessitates larger (and thus heavier) naval guns and consequently, larger platforms to carry these guns and absorb their recoil. This trend culminated in the giant battleships of WWII. The ability to deploy anti-ship guided self-propelled warheads from small, maneuverable platforms partially negates the advantages that were provided by larger ships in the era before the advent of guided self-propelled warheads. A small missile boat, when equipped with sophisticated guided anti-ship missiles can pose a negligible to moderate threat to even the largest of capital ships, and do so at much greater ranges than is possible with torpedoes.

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