Editing Advanced Tactical Fighter (section)

==Selection and full-scale development==
{{main|Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor}}
Following a review of the flight test results and proposals, the Secretary of the Air Force, Donald Rice, announced the Lockheed team and Pratt & Whitney as the competition winner for full-scale development, or Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD), on 23 April 1991. By this time, the 1990 Major Aircraft Review by Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney, had reduced the planned total ATF buy to 650 aircraft and peak production rate to 48 per year.<ref name="Miller_p38">Miller 2005, p. 38.</ref> Both air vehicle designs met or exceeded all performance requirements; the YF-23 was stealthier and faster, but the YF-22 was more agile.<ref name="Goodall_p110">Goodall 1992, p. 110.</ref> The U.S. Navy had begun considering a version of the ATF called Navy Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF) in 1986,<ref name="Pace_p19-22">Pace 1999, pp. 19–22.</ref> and it has been speculated in the aviation press that the YF-22 was also seen as more adaptable to the NATF.{{refn|group=N|Both NATF-22 and NATF-23 would have been significantly different from their Air Force counterparts, with the NATF-22 having variable-sweep wings and the NATF-23 being shortened while having canards and a more conventional vertical tail arrangement.<ref>Miller 2005, p. 74.</ref><ref>Metz 2017, pp. 74-79.</ref>}}<ref name="Vector_F-22">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090106044034/http://www.vectorsite.net/avf22.html The Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor]}}. Vectorsite.net, 1 February 2007.</ref> However, by late 1990 to early 1991, the Navy was beginning to back out of NATF due to escalating costs, and abandoned NATF completely by FY 1992.{{refn|The NATF peak production rate following the 1990 Major Aircraft Review was reduced to 36 per year, which further increased unit procurement costs and dissuaded the Navy from the program.<ref name="A&H1998p235-239"/>|group=N}}<ref name="Miller_p76">Miller 2005, p. 76.</ref>

[[File:F-22 Raptor flies during the AirPower over Hampton Roads Open House at Langley AFB Va., April 24, 2016.jpg|thumb|left|The production F-22 Raptor]]

The selection decision has been speculated by aviation observers to have involved industrial factors and perception of program management as much as the technical merit of the aircraft designs.<ref>{{cite report |author=Landis, Tony |date=1 February 2022 |title=Flashback: Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II |url=https://www.afmc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2919261/flashback-northrop-yf-23-black-widow-ii/ |publisher=Air Force Materiel Command History Office}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Jouppi |first=Matthew |url=https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/what-usafs-ngad-program-can-learn-advanced-tactical-fighter |title=What USAF's NGAD Program Can Learn From The Advanced Tactical Fighter |work=Aviation Week & Space Technology |date=30 April 2024}}</ref> At the time, Northrop was viewed as riskier because it was struggling with the B-2 and [[AGM-137 TSSAM]] programs in terms of meeting cost, schedule, and predicted stealth performance.<ref name="Chong2016p237-238"/> In contrast, Lockheed's program management on the F-117 was lauded for meeting performance and delivering on schedule and within budget, with the aircraft achieving operational success over [[United States invasion of Panama|Panama]] and during the [[Gulf War]].<ref>Sweetman 1998, pp. 24-27.</ref> While the YF-23 air vehicle was in a higher state of maturity and refinement compared to the YF-22 due to the latter's late redesign and partly as a result had better flight performance, the Lockheed team executed a more aggressive flight test plan with considerably higher number of sorties and hours flown. Furthermore, Lockheed chose to execute high-visibility tests such as firing missiles and [[Stall (fluid dynamics)#Flight beyond the stall|high angle-of-attack maneuvers]] that, while not required, improved its perception by the USAF in managing weapons systems risk.<ref>Aronstein and Hirschberg 1998, pp. 159-160.</ref> With the overall final F-22 and F-23 designs competitive with each other in technical performance and meeting all requirements, the USAF decision then took into consideration non-technical aspects such as confidence in program management when determining the winner.<ref>Metz 2017, p. 73.</ref><ref>Aronstein and Hirschberg 1998, pp. 288-289.</ref><ref name="ATF_chief_eng">{{cite interview |last=Abell |first=Eric "Rick" |interviewer=C.W. Lemoine |title=Interview with Eric "Rick" Abell - Former Chief Engineer for the ATF Program |date=1 February 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MUK241uZHM }}</ref>

The Lockheed team and Pratt & Whitney were awarded the EMD contracts to fully develop and build the Advanced Tactical Fighter in August 1991, initially worth $9.55 billion and $1.375 billion respectively for a total of approximately $11 billion (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=11000000000|start_year=1991}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) as [[cost-plus contract]]s (which did eventually grow considerably). The YF-22 design was evolved and significantly refined to become the EMD/production [[Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor|F-22 Raptor]] version,{{refn|group=N|The F-22 has a similar aerodynamic layout as the YF-22, but with notable differences in the overall external geometry such as wing sweep angle (reduced from 48° to 42°), the position and design of the cockpit, tail fins and wings, and in internal structural layout.<ref name="Hehs1998P2"/>}} which first flew in September 1997. However, with the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991 and the subsequent reductions in defense spending, the F-22's development would be "re-phased", or drawn out and extended multiple times. The program was scrutinized for its costs and less expensive alternatives such as modernized F-15 or F-16 variants were continually being proposed, even though the USAF considered the F-22 to provide the greatest capability increase against peer adversaries for the investment. Technology from the ATF would feed into follow-on tactical aviation programs such as the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (later renamed [[Joint Strike Fighter program|Joint Strike Fighter]]) that resulted in the [[Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II|Lockheed Martin F-35]]; for instance, the F-35's [[Pratt & Whitney F135|F135]] engine is a derivative of the F-22's F119.<ref>Aronstein and Hirschberg 1998, p. 250.</ref><ref>Sweetman 1998, pp. 88-89.</ref>

While the USAF adjusted its procurement goal down to 381 aircraft following the end of the Cold War, the funded number in the program of record continued to decline, dropping to 339 at a peak rate of 36 per year by the time the EMD/production aircraft first flew.<ref name="Miller_p38-46">Miller 2005, pp. 38, 42–46.</ref>  Both the F-22 and F-23 designs were later considered for modification as a medium-range supersonic regional bomber ([[Lockheed Martin FB-22|FB-22]] and [[Northrop YF-23#Proposed revival|FB-23]] respectively),<ref name="Miller_p38">Miller 2005, p. 38.</ref> but the proposals have not come to fruition.{{refn|group=N|Also competing with these regional bomber designs was the [[Rockwell B-1 Lancer#Variants|B-1R]]; plans for an [[2037 bomber controversy|"interim" regional bomber]] were dropped in the 2006 [[Quadrennial Defense Review]], which instead favored a larger strategic bomber with much longer range.<ref name="2018bomber"/>}}<ref name="2018bomber">Hebert, Adam J. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090923015849/http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2006/October%202006/10062018.aspx "The 2018 Bomber and Its Friends"]}}. Air Force magazine, October 2006.</ref> Following flight and operational testing, the F-22 entered service in December 2005, but with no apparent air-to-air threat present and the Department of Defense focused on [[counterinsurgency]] at that time, F-22 production only reached 195 aircraft — 187 of them operational models — and ended in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.af.mil/News/story/storyID/123013572/ |title=F-22A Raptor goes operational |work=U.S. Air Force |date=15 December 2005 |access-date=24 June 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120723113239/http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123013572 |archive-date=23 July 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name= combataircraft>{{cite news |last=Parsons |first=Gary |url=http://www.combataircraft.net/view_article.asp?ID=4994 |title=Final F-22 Delivered |work=Combat Aircraft Monthly |publisher=Key Publishing |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313044134/http://www.combataircraft.net/view_article.asp?id=4994 |archive-date=13 March 2016 |date=3 May 2012 |access-date=10 April 2014}}</ref>