Last week, Northrop Grumman released a render of what could be their F/A-XX stealth fighter design for the U.S. Navy, and oh boy, did it make some waves. This single image, uploaded to Northrop’s Naval Aviation page without any accompanying text or details, was just enough for us to clearly see the legendary DNA of Northrop’s last stealth fighter design, the YF-23, shine through. So, let’s revisit Northrop’s NATF-23 proposal, and see if it can’t help us better contextualize what a fully modernized, 6th-generation version of this fighter could do for America’s Navy.
