In 1912, Vickers started experimenting with the idea of an armed warplane that could take out other aircraft. The “Destroyer” (later known as Vickers E.F.B.1), the first resultant aircraft, was displayed at the Olympia Aero Show in February 1913 but crashed on its first flight. To avoid the issue of firing via a tractor propeller, this aircraft had a “Farman” pusher configuration, and it was armed with a single belt-fed Vickers gun.

The Vickers Type 18, also known as the Vickers E.F.B.2, was created by Chief Designer Archie Low as part of Vickers’ ongoing efforts to produce armed pusher biplanes. This two-bay biplane had a duralumin-covered nacelle with sizable celluloid windows in the sides and was powered by a single 80 horsepower (60 kW) Gnome Monosoupape nine-cylinder rotary engine. The aircraft was constructed of steel tubes. Its wings and tail were covered in fabric. The aircraft had a big semi-circular tailplane and unstaggered wings with wing warping for lateral control. The nacelle’s nose was still equipped with a single Vickers gun, which had a highly restricted range of motion and a terrible field of view for the shooter. On November 26, 1913, the E.F.B.2 took off from Brooklands for the first time.

The F.B.5 made its debut on July 17, 1914. In contrast to its predecessors, it had a straightforward, conventional design with a single 100 horsepower (75 kW) Gnome Monosoupape nine-cylinder rotary engine that drove a two-bladed propeller. There were 224 F.B.5s made in total, 119 of which were made in Britain by Vickers, 99 in France, and six in Denmark.