In difference to other German fast attack boats, the ships of the "Leichte Schnellboote" class were never planned to operate by their own. Instead, they should be based on auxiliary cruisers or other vessels operating in overseas areas to support the operations of the mother ship. To do so, small boats were able to be fitted with different kind of weapons, form stern launched torpedoes, to mines and light machine guns.

They should be able to attack other ships by their own, lay mines in areas where the auxiliary cruiser could not operate or to transport raiding crews to allied merchant ships. In addition they were also able to operate against submarines in a limited way.

Because of their small size, those boats could only operate in light sea. Of the 12 boats completed, only three were used on board of an auxiliary cruiser, most of the others were sent to the Aegean or Black sea where they were for escort duty or submarine hunters.