Ten vessels were ordered as the P2000 class, based on a design of an
Omani coastguard cutter, from Watercraft Marine. They are twin-shaft vessels with moulded
glass-reinforced plastic hulls of
displacement. After that company went into
liquidation, the balance of the order was completed by
Vosper Thornycroft. The
Archers were initially used as Royal Navy patrol craft and as training tenders for the
Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and
University Royal Naval Units (URNU). Four identical vessels were ordered for the
Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS) as
Example-class tenders. When that service was disbanded in 1994, the
Examples were transferred to the Royal Navy for similar duties as their
Archer-class brethren (under the same names under which they served as "XSVs", all of which begin with the first syllable "Ex"). Until 2005, the four
Examples were painted with a black hull. In 1998 two additional vessels ( and ) of this design were commissioned into the Royal Navy from
Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, to replace and as URNU training vessels for the two newest URNUs, serving
Cambridge and
Oxford Universities respectively (
Raider was later transferred to Bristol URNU whilst became the ship of Cambridge URNU). This brought the total of
Archer-class vessels in the Royal Navy to sixteen, of which fourteen form the Coastal Forces Squadron Squadron (formerly the 1st Patrol Boat Squadron), each one formerly attached to an URNU (one per unit) under the command of a
lieutenant. The remaining two vessels ( and ), having formed the
Cyprus Squadron from 2003 to 2010, and URNU vessels before that, returned to the UK in April 2010 to form the Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron, performing security duties within
HMNB Clyde. In 2012
Dasher and
Pursuer were replaced by
Raider and
Tracker - these can be identified by a number of pintle-mounted
L7 7.62 mm GPMG machine guns and armour plating. and were also formerly allocated to the
Gibraltar Squadron for
guard ship and
search and rescue duties, but were replaced by the dedicated . These two ships were also used during the Thames River Pageant, escorting the Royal Barge during
Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. Unlike the remainder of the class, both these ships remain capable of mounting a
20 mm cannon on the fo'c'sle. The NATO designation of a P2000 is "PBR", denoting a "patrol boat - riverine and harbours". ==Vessels in the class==