Northrop Grumman is teasing us again with another glimpse of its candidate for the US Navy's F/A-XX fighter program. The company posted a brief video on X (formerly Twitter) that gives the most complete look yet of the 6th-Gen aircraft.
Northrop Grumman's timing of the release of the video is hardly random.
On April 20, 2026, US Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Daryl Caudle said at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2026 exposition that a decision will likely be made on whether Northrop Grumman or Boeing will get the nod to continue with the F/A-XX program. In response, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden stated that her company has the industrial capacity to produce the new fighter.
We're bringing tomorrow’s horizon into focus, faster, stronger and ready when the warfighter needs it.#SAS2026 pic.twitter.com/r0uORyR5kM
— Northrop Grumman (@northropgrumman) April 20, 2026
In other words, Northrop Grumman is engaging in a bit of self promotion to drum up support ahead of a decision that will be worth billions of dollars.
That being said, the new computer-generated video gives us new clues as to what the Northrop Grumman F/A-XX will look like in its final form and what its likely mission will be. In general, the configuration shown is in line with the Navy's requirement for a multi-role fighter as opposed to the dedicated air superiority fighter that the US Air Force wants. The lines also show that it shares a lot of DNA from Northrop Grumman's YF-23 Black Widow II that lost out to the F-22 back in the 1990s.
The video shows the concept plane retains the chines seen in previous glimpses, but now we can see that the aircraft is tailless. The vertical stabilizer has been removed to increase the stealth of the airframe by reducing the radar signature across both high- and low-frequency bands.
Another stealth feature is the dorsal air inlets on the upper surface of the fuselage. These make the aircraft less visible to ground radar and heat sensors, though there has been criticism this will cause problems at high angles of attack in dogfights. The counterpoint to this is that it's likely that, as a sixth-generation fighter, the F/A-XX will be fighting other aircraft at a distance rather than in close combat.
The concept also reveals that the aircraft has diamond-shaped wings that suggest high-speed cruise efficiency and long-range endurance, though this may be at the price of low-speed maneuverability. The outer wing sections also appear to fold upward, which would be a necessity if it were to be deployed on an American aircraft carrier where space is limited.
An additional indicator that the concept is aimed at carrier operations is the undercarriage. The nose shows reinforced twin wheels and a catapult launch bar, indicating it will be a Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) aircraft that can be launched by catapult from a carrier and recovered by an arresting wire upon landing on the flight deck.
Finally, the large canopy has stirred speculation that the new aircraft will have a two-seat variant for high-workload missions, with the pilot acting as a mission commander for autonomous loyal wingman drones.
How many of these features will make their way into an actual prototype (if any) remains to be seen, so stay tuned.
Source: Northrop Grumman
