#yf-23

The Northrop Black Widow YF-23

Me:

"A proposed naval variant of the YF-23 known as the NATF-23 was considered as an F-14 Tomcat replacement. The original YF-23 design was first considered but would have had issues with flight deck space handling, storage, landing, and catapult launching reasons requiring a different design."

"The naval NATF-23 variant was different in many ways to the USAF version; the diamond wings were located as far back as possible, and the aircraft has conventional canted vertical tails instead of the ruddervator with serrations for low RCS and increased maneuverability at low speeds for aircraft carrier operations, folding wing capability for flight deck storage, reinforced landing gear, tailhook and canards for landing on aircraft carriers and thrust vectoring nozzles. The intakes were also different as they were a quarter circle with serrations, with a bumped compression surface. The NATF-23 had an increased 48 ft wingspan while the length was reduced to 62 ft."

"The NATF program called for the procurement of 546 aircraft along with the USAF's planned procurement of 750 aircraft."

"The NATF's internal payload was 4AAAM/AMRAAM, 2 AIM-9, AND 500 RDS 20MM. No external load was mandated, but provision for external carriage of weapons was desired."

May 7, 1991 Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"The Major Aircraft Review, launched in early 1990 under Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney, reduced the peak production rates of both the ATF and NATF, from 72 to 48 and from 48 to 36, respectively. This had the effect of substantially increasing the program cost. In August 1990, Admiral Richard Dunleavy, who was in charge of Navy aircraft requirements, stated that 'he did not see how the NATF could fit into any affordable plan for Navy aviation.' The ATF Dem/Val flight-testing was accomplished from August 1990 through January 1991, but this had little impact on the prospects for an NATF. In early 1991, consideration of the NATF was finally dropped after it was determined that the F-14 could meet the Navy's air superiority needs through 2015. There was, at least initially, an option to restart the NATF program in fiscal year 1997, although that has since been abandoned."

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