Northrop Grumman just showed the world what its next fighter jet might look like. On April 20, 2026, the company released a concept video of its F/A-XX proposal — the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter — and the internet immediately noticed something: it looks a lot like the YF-23 Black Widow II, the aircraft that lost to the F-22 Raptor in 1991. The timing is deliberate. The Chief of Naval Operations announced that a contract decision between Northrop Grumman and Boeing is expected by August. With the clock ticking, Northrop is going public — or at least as public as a classified competition allows.

What the Rendering Shows

The concept video gives the clearest look yet at Northrop’s vision for the Navy’s future air superiority fighter. The design is tailless — no vertical stabilisers, no horizontal tail surfaces. This is a signature Northrop approach, seen in the B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider, and it maximises stealth by eliminating the radar-reflecting surfaces that conventional tail configurations create. The air intakes are dorsal — mounted on top of the fuselage, on either side of the centreline. This placement, shared with the B-2 and B-21, shields the intake from ground-based radar looking upward and reduces the frontal radar cross-section. The wing sections show visible camber on the outer portions and are clearly designed to fold for carrier operations — a hard requirement for any aircraft that must fit inside the confines of a carrier hangar bay. Curved doors on the underside suggest at least two internal weapons bays, consistent with a design that prioritises stealth over external ordnance carriage.

The YF-23 Ghost

The comparison to the YF-23 Black Widow II is unavoidable. Northrop’s 1991 Advanced Tactical Fighter contender was widely regarded as the stealthier and faster of the two ATF finalists. It supercruised past Mach 1.6, featured a diamond-shaped planform, and used a distinctive trapezoidal exhaust trough to mask its infrared signature. The Air Force chose the Lockheed YF-22 instead, largely because of its superior agility and lower perceived risk. Thirty-five years later, Northrop appears to be drawing on the same design philosophy — stealth first, with the understanding that in the era of beyond-visual-range combat, being invisible matters more than being manoeuvrable. The F/A-XX concept shares the YF-23’s emphasis on low observability, dorsally mounted intakes, and a clean, uncluttered planform. But Northrop has been careful to note that concept renderings are not accurate representations of the actual bid. The design of the Air Force’s F-47 was significantly altered in public representations to avoid revealing classified details. The same caution likely applies here.

Boeing’s Counter

Boeing has been less public with its F/A-XX concept, though earlier renderings showed a more conventional twin-tail design. The competition between the two companies is, by all accounts, fierce. Lockheed Martin was publicly eliminated from contention in early 2025, leaving Boeing and Northrop as the only American manufacturers of combat jet aircraft vying for a contract that could be worth tens of billions of dollars over its lifetime. The CNO’s remark that one of the two bidders “can’t deliver” on the Navy’s schedule added fuel to the speculation. Neither company was named, but the comment suggests the Navy has concerns about at least one competitor’s ability to meet timeline requirements — a significant factor in a programme where the Super Hornet fleet is ageing and the need for a replacement is urgent.

August Decision

The F/A-XX will replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet as the Navy’s primary carrier-based air superiority and strike fighter. It is expected to operate alongside the F-35C Lightning II, with the F/A-XX handling the high-end air dominance mission while the F-35C serves as the multi-role workhorse. An August decision would put the programme on track for engineering and manufacturing development in 2027, with first flight potentially in the early 2030s and initial operational capability later that decade. For Northrop, a win would make the company the builder of both America’s next bomber (B-21) and its next naval fighter — a position of dominance in tactical aviation that would be historically unprecedented.

Sources: The War Zone, FlightGlobal, The Aviationist, Aviation Week, 19FortyFive