SMS Ilitis was a gunboat of the Kaiserliche Marine launched on 4 August 1898 and commissioned on 1 December 1898.

Following her commissioning, SMS Iltis was sent to Ostasiatische Station, where she would spend her entire career.  Shortly after her arrival, she participated in actions surrounding the Boxer Rebellion and the Occupation of Kiautschou.  In the years after that, she engaged in routine patrolling of the Chinese coast and rivers, and occasionally to Japan and Korea.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, the cruiser SMS Emden captured the Russian steamer Ryazan and brought her into Tsingtau.  She was converted to an auxiliary cruiser christened Cormoran, and manned by men formerly of SMS Iltis, the unprotected cruiser SMS Cormoran, and the gunboat SMS Vaterland.  These vessels were then scuttled during the siege of Tsingtau, with the SMS Iltis being scuttled on 28 September 1914.