The YF-23 Black Widow II Stealth Fighter Haunts the F/A-XX

The U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation fighter program is in peril, and its fate may rhyme with a controversial decision from history: the YF-23 Black Widow II.

-The F/A-XX, much like the technically superior YF-23 prototype in 1991, is at risk of being canceled not for its design, but due to political, budgetary, and bureaucratic pressures.

-With funding battles already underway, unless lessons are learned from the YF-23’s defeat, the Navy’s more advanced fighter could once again be sacrificed for reasons that have more to do with politics than combat potential.