The Supermarine Attacker was notable in being the first jet fighter used by the Fleet Air Arm. Ironically, however, it has been originally designed for the RAF for land-based operations (based on the aborted piston-engined successor to the Spitfire, the Spiteful) but lost interest due to research delays and various handling problems which therefore required a navalized conversion to continue being viable. Overall the Attacker shared the Spiteful's laminar flow wing and even its tailwheel undercarriage which was odd for a jet fighter. Ultimately, the FAA took hold of only a small quantity of these aircraft where they served with two front line squadrons before being relegated to reserve units after barely four years of operations due to the introduction of superior designs such as the Sea Hawk and Sea Venom which quickly replaced it in carrier service. A de-navalized version was operated by Pakistan, its only export customer.

The Supermarine Type 392 had its first flight on 27 July 1946 with standard navalized modifications such as an arrester hook plus an ejection seat. Folding wings were included in the first production Attacker F.1 sent to No. 800 Squadron. Other versions included the FB.1 fighter-bomber and the FB.2 with improved engines and throttle acceleration control.