Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor NATF-22 / F-22N

The Navy was looking for a replacement for the F-14 Tomcat and needed lower landing speeds than the Air Force's ATF while still reaching Mach 2-class performance. The Lockheed team's design group worked through several configurations: Boeing argued for a fixed wing and General Dynamics for variable sweep, and after an internal competition and extensive wind tunnel testing the team settled in August 1989 on variable-sweep wings, which also improved loiter endurance — something the Navy valued more than supercruise for fleet air defence. The design retained the four empennage surfaces and the thrust-vectoring nozzles; fuselage shaping remained similar to the Air Force version, while the landing gear and arresting hook were strengthened for carrier recoveries. The avionics would initially have been largely common with the F-22, with added sensors and mission systems for maritime tasks such as surface attack, and the weapons bay arrangement was similar but with expanded carriage including the AIM-152 AAAM, AGM-88 HARM and AGM-84 Harpoon. The result would have been heavier, more complex and more expensive than the Air Force aircraft. The team submitted the design alongside its F-22 full-scale development proposal in December 1990, but the Navy began backing out of the programme between late 1990 and early 1991. Lockheed and Boeing later drew on parts of the work — the variable-sweep wings, the fuselage shaping — for several concepts for the Navy's A-X programme, later A/F-X, which was itself cancelled after the 1993 budget review.