F/A-XX Next Generation Naval Fighter Concept Art Emerges From Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman has published a conceptual rendering for its submission for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter. The company tells TWZ that this is the current official artwork associated with its F/A-XX concept. The program has long been even more secretive than the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance jet, with official artwork from potential vendors being extremely limited. In the meantime, the future of the Navy program is being increasingly questioned, with the service and Pentagon officials apparently at loggerheads about how best to proceed with it.

The conceptual rendering in question appears on the Northrop Grumman website, under its Naval Aviation section. It shows the nose, a cockpit, and the forward fuselage of a supposed F/A-XX jet awaiting catapult launch from the deck of a Navy carrier.

The heavy shadowing, perspective, and cropping of the airframe mean that it’s far from easy to get a handle on the overall planform of the aircraft. It’s worth noting that the original image posted by Northrop Grumman also had text overlaid on it. The company provided the source image without it to TWZ upon request.

However, it’s clearly optimized for stealth, with a prominent chine that blends the wing into the fuselage. The flowing, almost organic nature of the design, with constantly changing radiused surfaces, is also indicative of next-generation stealth. The nose would appear to be quite broad, which would provide a large aperture for a radar.

The large bubble canopy seems to be indicative of a single pilot and provides good visibility. The idea that this aircraft would be a single seat design is of interest as some have assumed a two-crew concept would be better for the highly complex, extended range missions it is intended to take on. The canopy features a brace, similar to that on the F-35.

The fuselage has plenty of ventral depth to it, with a large, rounded belly that suggests considerable internal volume for fuel and weapons. The aircraft features heavy-duty landing gear, of the kind required for the rigors of deck launched and landings, with twin wheels on the nose gear.

Perhaps most intriguing is the presence of the top-mounted intake, located on the left-hand side ‘shoulder’ position. The intake has a slightly curved but broadly rectangular profile, with a vertical shelf on its outboard side. It extends from the fuselage spine out almost as far as the wing root. A mirrored intake on the right-hand side would feed the other engine. However, intake design is among the most sensitive features on a stealthy aircraft, so this is likely a somewhat awkward, seemingly out of place not very stealthy placeholder for a very low-observable intake design. The intake, as it appears in the rendering, also appears too small for the actual requirements.

Overall, the concept appears directly reminiscent of Northrop’s YF-23, the company’s entrant into the Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter competition, in which it lost out to Lockheed’s YF-22. The YF-23 featured a characteristic trapezoidal wing and massive, widely splayed tailerons. In the current F/A-XX jet artwork, it’s not possible to see how close the family resemblance is in terms of planform, although the nose and cockpit have glaring similarities. Unlike this F/A-XX concept, the twin intakes on the YF-23 were mounted below the wings. Mounting them above the wing offers low-observable advantages, but also can have drawbacks in terms of supplying sufficient air to the engines, especially during high-performance maneuvers.

At this point, it should be noted that what we can see of the aircraft depicted in the Northrop Grumman render doesn’t necessarily relate to what the final aircraft configuration would look like. In general, its appearance conforms to the kind of low-observable sixth-generation combat jet that we might expect, but that’s not to say there won’t be more surprises to come. Also, as with the renderings for the Air Force’s Boeing F-47, we don’t know how accurate or purposefully misleading this image might be.

It’s unclear exactly when the rendering was uploaded to the Northrop Grumman website. A spokesperson told us yesterday that the new rendering “has not been widely reported” prior to now.

The same Northrop Grumman spokesperson confirmed that a previous concept artwork that reemerged on social media in recent days “is an old, generic rendering of a future Navy fighter that has been in the public domain for some time.” You can see that artwork in the tweet below, for reference.

The suggestion, therefore, is that the new rendering could well be closer to something like a final F/A-XX concept. However, the same caveats about the potential for future changes, and even radical redesigns, as well as deliberate misinformation, apply.

It is also worth comparing the new F/A-XX rendering to earlier — entirely notional — concepts use din advertising offerings from Northrop Grumman, apparently in relation to the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) crewed platform for the Air Force. You can read more about these here. While the art below is simplified and appears far more abstract, the general configuration is similar to the new artwork.

Northrop Grumman is understood to be one of two companies in the running for F/A-XX after Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated in March. Notably, Northrop Grumman exited the USAF’s NGAD program around 2023, stating it would focus on other priorities including the F/A-XX, as well as the B-21 Raider stealth bomber. It now seems they were about to get cut from the program prior to the choice to leave it on their own accord. The other F/A-XX contender is Boeing, the prime contractor for the F-47.

For some time now, the future of the F/A-XX program has been under scrutiny, with growing signs that it was at best in limbo. Boeing notably pushed back on that assertion back in June.

More recently, however, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a draft defense spending bill that would reverse the Pentagon’s plan to freeze the F/A-XX program, as you can read about here.

The version of the 2026 Fiscal Year Defense Appropriations Bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved last month includes $1.4 billion for F/A-XX.

The same figure of $1.4 billion appeared in a call for additional F/A-XX funding that the Navy had reportedly included in its annual Unfunded Priority List (UPL) sent to Congress earlier in July. Meanwhile, matters around the F/A-XX are made more complex by an apparent conflict between the Navy and Pentagon top brass over the course the program should take.

Back in June, the Pentagon’s proposed budget for the 2026 Fiscal Year included enough funding to complete initial development work but stopped short of funds for procurement of the jets. U.S. military officials said that this decision was made to avoid competition for resources with the Air Force’s F-47. This seems to have been driven by concerns that the U.S. industrial base would not be able to handle work on both programs simultaneously.

Since then, in addition to the UPL submission, Navy officials have talked up the central role of the F/A-XX within the service’s future carrier aviation plans.

“The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based sixth-generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the nominee to become the next Chief of Naval Operations, wrote in response to a question about F/A-XX ahead of his confirmation hearing last month.

Almost certainly, there will be more twists and turns in the F/A-XX program as the Pentagon and the Navy align their priorities. Behind the scenes, the designs from the competing companies are likely also undergoing refinements, perhaps also significant changes. It remains to be seen how directly the new Northrop Grumman rendering points to that company’s submission, but it’s certainly a tantalizing glimpse of what the F/A-XX could look like and the timing of its appearance is certainly interesting.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com