Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The YF-23 Was Stealthier and Faster. The Air Force Picked the F-22 Anyway. We Got Up-close the Black Widow II. Maybe the Air Force...
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The YF-23 Was Stealthier and Faster. The Air Force Picked the F-22 Anyway. We Got Up-close the Black Widow II. Maybe the Air Force...
The YF-23 represents a fundamental design philosophy that prioritized all-aspect stealth and high-speed persistence over dogfighting agility. In the 2026 strategic landscape, where long-range...
The YF-23, Northrop Grumman's "diamond-winged" contender for the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract, remains the ultimate "what-if" of the fifth-generation era. While the F-22 Raptor...
Summary and Key Points: Reuben F. Johnson, a veteran defense technology analyst and Casimir Pulaski Foundation director, scrutinizes the Pratt & Whitney XA103 adaptive...
Summary and Key Points: Northrop’s YF-23 Black Widow II remains the great “what if” of the ATF competition—praised for stealth shaping, speed, range, and...
The Navy’s flirtation with a carrier-based Advanced Tactical Fighter sprang from a late–Cold War problem: replacing the F-14 with something stealthier, longer-ranged, and optimized...
Summary and Key Points: The Northrop YF-23 “Black Widow II” is often remembered as the loser of the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition against...
The Real Reason the YF-23 Lost: It Wasn’t About Performance, It Was About Change For thirty years, the YF-23 Black Widow II has lingered...
Northrop and McDonnell Douglas’ YF-23 Black Widow II paired extreme low-observability with long-range speed, built around diamond-shaped wings, blended shaping, and S-duct intakes to...
The Advanced Tactical Fighter competition pitted Lockheed’s YF-22 against Northrop’s more radical YF-23 as the Air Force sought a successor to the F-15 built...