Posted on 07/26/2025 5:30:39 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
The U.S. Air Force made a “strategic blunder” in 1991 by choosing the YF-22 over the more advanced YF-23 prototype. The YF-23 was a more futuristic design, prioritizing the all-aspect stealth, speed, and range needed for modern, beyond-visual-range combat.The Air Force, however, being risk-averse, chose the more conventional and maneuverable YF-22 (or F-22) because it clung to outdated dogfighting dogmas.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...
Regarding BVR (beyond visual range), consider the Navy’s newest air-to-air missle, based on the Ohio-based SM-3 (I believe). It’s been flown on F-18s with a load of 4, not 6. Of course, this doesn’t address any stealth achieved by the Soviets.
The choice was purely political. Northrop was building the B2 and Lockheed was chosen to keep it going at the time.
The YF-23 was parked ignominiously on the far side of the lakebed at Edwards, canopy shattered. It was gorgeous plane in my opinion.
Back in the day, the “Advanced Tactical Fighter” was proposed (what became the F-22) as a next gen fighter costing (laughably) no more than $25M a copy.
The F-22 bellied into the runway at Edwards shortly after selection while filming a commercial of some sort for Lockheed. It had bailing wire and bubble gum for flight software, and nobody had bothered to have the condition where the afterburner was lit while the gear was in transition, so there was a pilot-induced oscillation that ended up destroying the airframe but one lucky test pilot walked away from (the definition of a “good” landing).
They made the right choice. 22 is pinnacle and useful when it’s not BVR. The lesson was learned in Vietnam everything was going to be missiles and BVR.
It would have been foolish to get the 23 and find yourself unable to cope with the stealth vanished via tech, and to have something you can’t use for anything else.
I think the YF-23 scared the wrong people. It was downright alien-looking and they weren’t sure how to evaluate it. The YF-22 was more of a known quantity and our primary adversary was still the U.S.S.R. at the time. Little did anyone know that 30 years later the F-23 would be a much better fit for the current threat picture than the F-22.
I’m dying to see what the F-47 looks like. I can’t help but wonder if it will look suspiciously like an F-23.
“ We need a strategy to vault forward and produce lethal systems in the hundreds of thousands that could blunt any attempt to overthrow Western civilization.”
An attempt to overthrow western civilization? Fighter planes are useless for that.
As far as YF-23’s looks go, it’s the 21st century reincarnation of the DeHavilland Mosquito, the most utterly bewitching airplane ever made.
Supposedly, Lyndon Johnson got $100,000 in cash for pushing through the F-111 contract award for General Dynamics. Boeing’s design and bid had been consistently rated better and cheaper.
General Dynamics didn't have the technology to manufacture the Titanium air plane so they sued to force the losing bidder to share their process and won.
As long as there are computer or electronic voting machines running our elections, the Republic is in danger.
In the aggregate, the PLA forces are more than capable of doing so. That is their aim for the Indo-Pacific region, to supplant Western values with centralized control & tyranny. The ultimate goal is to do the same worldwide, and the Communist Chinese armed forces are the primary instrument.
Now if the can only resurrect the F-23.
Funny but they did the thing with YB-49 to Northrop.
Some would claim there was a payoff somewhere along the line...
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