“Northrop’s YF-23 team was made up of brilliant engineers,” remembered test pilot Paul Metz, among only a handful of pilots to fly both the YF-23 and its competitor, the YF-22. Thirty-four years after the aircraft was deemed faster and stealthier than the Raptor by many, the plane is redefining U.S. fighter design this time at sea.
The YF-23 Black Widow II was born out of the U.S. Air Force Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program of the late 1980s, a competition to replace the F-15 with an aircraft that would be survivable against future Soviet air defenses and surface-to-air missiles. Northrop Grumman and McDonnell Douglas teamed to deliver two prototypes characterized by their diamond-shaped blended diamond-shaped wings, canted tailfins, and buried engines features that made them radar-cross-section and drag-reducing. In contrast to the YF-22, the YF-23 forwent thrust vectoring, sacrificing extreme maneuverability for Mach 2.2 top speed, afterburner-less supercruise, and outstanding all-aspect stealth.
Both prototypes had various engines installed: Pratt & Whitney’s YF119 in one and General Electric’s YF120 in the other. The latter supported the sole supercruise demonstration in the ATF fly-off, as pointed out by aviation historian James Stevenson, who claimed that “only YF-23 ever supercruised” throughout the tests. The internal bays of the aircraft could house AIM-7, AIM-120, and AIM-9 missiles, together with a 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon equipping it for beyond-visual-range as well as close-in combat.
Apart from its performance, the Air Force chose the YF-22 in 1991. Decision-makers preferred its thrust-vectoring maneuverability, more traditional looks, and Lockheed’s established production track record. Political and industrial considerations also carried considerable weight; Lockheed’s consortium had a wider manufacturing base, whereas Northrop was still dealing with B-2 program overruns. Consequently, the YF-23 ended up as a museum piece one in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Dayton, Ohio, and the other one at the Western Museum of Flight in California.
Now, the YF-23’s silhouette appears again in a most unlikely location: concept art for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation carrier-based fighter. Northrop Grumman’s depiction features a wide-raked nose with a chine leading into the fuselage, radiused surfaces optimized for stealth, and heavy-duty twin-wheel nose gear for carrier operations. A top-mounted intake presumably a placeholder for a low-observable production configuration indicates attempts to limit engine face reflections from radar. The similarity with the forward fuselage of the YF-23 is such that it raises speculation about a “navalized” Black Widow III.
The Navy’s requirements for F/A-XX correlate well with qualities the YF-23 had strengths in: greater range more than 125 percent of the reach of the F/A-18E/F high survivability in contested air space, and integration with unmanned systems. Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly has highlighted the requirements for “attributes of survivability and signature… to penetrate threat airspace” and for functioning as a “man on the loop” in cooperative combat aircraft management. The design also has to endure the rigors of catapult launches and arrested landings, something the YF-23 never experienced but whose structural lessons could apply to naval adaptation.
Budget politics muddy the waters. The Pentagon’s FY2026 budget submission cut F/A-XX to $74 million, favoring the Air Force’s $3.5 billion F-47 NGAD program over concerns the industrial base cannot handle two concurrent sixth-gen fighters. The Senate Appropriations Committee, however, has proposed to add back $1.4 billion, echoing Navy leaders’ cautions that in the absence of F/A-XX, carrier air wings would lag behind China’s growing fleet of J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters.
From an engineering perspective, reapplying well-proven aerodynamic solutions might accelerate development schedules and lower risk. The YF-23 planform resulted from meticulous radar cross-section optimization, and its engine exhaust troughs and tail configuration reduced infrared and radar emissions from many angles. Advanced materials, sensor fusion architectures, and AI-facilitated battle management might be added on top of that core, generating a platform to counter 2040-era threats without beginning anew.
In the Pacific, where distances are vast and require reach and survivability, a carrier fighter with YF-23 DNA might give the Navy a convincing advantage. Whether Congress continues the funding to make such a design move off the drawing board is as much in doubt as the YF-23’s own future in 1991 but its stealth legacy is no longer relegated to museum floors.
