The Tjeld class was based on a prototype fast patrol boat, the Nasty, developed and introduced as a private venture by Boat Services Ltd. A/S, Oslo, in close cooperation with Royal Norwegian Navy officers with World War II experience in fast patrol boats; the chief designer being naval architect Jan Herman Linge.

[1] The U.S. Navy operated twenty of the United States Nasty-class patrol boats, with pennant numbers PTF-3 through PTF-22, primarily in the conduct of riverine warfare during the Vietnam War.

A subsequent improved version, the Osprey class, was larger with aluminum instead of wooden hulls, of which four were operated by the U.S.Navy, PTF-23 through PTF-26.

[2] Many examples were later transferred to and operated by Naval Reserve units in the 1970s and 1980s, until phased out of service.

[2] The twenty Tjeld class vessels remained in service until the late 1970s; Skarv was stricken in 1978 as were six others in 1979, the remainder being laid up in reserve.