The Five Reasons Why The F-22N Sea Raptor Was The US Navy's Biggest Stealth Fighter Mistake

Despite being a ghost in the annals of military aviation, the F-22N "Sea Raptor" continues to be one of the most debated "what-if" programs in U.S. Navy history. This navalized version of the legendary F-22 Raptor was intended to bring true fifth-generation air superiority to the carrier deck, but it was ultimately shelved in favor of a different path. As of late 2025, with global tensions rising and advanced adversaries fielding their own stealth carrier fighters, the decision to cancel the F-22N is being scrutinized more than ever, raising questions about whether the U.S. Navy made a colossal strategic error decades ago.

The F-22N Sea Raptor was conceived to deliver unmatched speed, stealth, and air-to-air lethality from the deck of an aircraft carrier, a capability the current F-35C Lightning II, while multi-role capable, cannot fully replicate in the pure air superiority domain. Its cancellation was a complex decision driven by budget realities and a post-Cold War strategic shift, yet its absence is now arguably forcing the Navy to accelerate its ambitious Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program to fill a critical gap that the Sea Raptor was designed to cover.

The F-22N Sea Raptor: A Profile in Canceled Superiority

The F-22N Sea Raptor was never built, but its concept was a key part of naval aviation planning in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was the Navy’s proposed solution to the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, which ultimately yielded the F-22A Raptor for the U.S. Air Force. The naval variant was briefly known as the NATF-22 (Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter) before the F-22N designation was informally adopted by analysts and enthusiasts.

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• Program Origin: Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) / Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF).
• Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin/Boeing (based on the F-22 design).
• Proposed Role: Dedicated Carrier-Based Air Superiority Fighter.
• Key Modifications: Required a stronger landing gear for carrier catapult launches and arrested landings, a larger wing for lower approach speeds, and potentially folding wings for storage.
• Engines: Twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines, featuring two-dimensional thrust vectoring for extreme maneuverability.
• Projected Performance: Supercruise capability (sustained supersonic flight without afterburners) and a top speed exceeding Mach 2.25.
• Cancellation Year: Officially dropped in the early 1990s as part of the "Major Aircraft Review" and subsequent defense budget cuts.

The Five Strategic Mistakes of the F-22N Cancellation

The decision to abandon the F-22N Sea Raptor was primarily financial, made during a period when the U.S. was the undisputed global superpower, and large-scale air-to-air conflict seemed unlikely. In retrospect, this decision created a long-term capability deficit.

1. Sacrificing Air Dominance for Multi-Role Flexibility

The F-22N was a pure air superiority fighter, designed to dominate the airspace with unparalleled stealth, speed, and sensor fusion. When it was canceled, the Navy eventually committed to the F-35C Lightning II, a highly capable multi-role fighter. While the F-35C excels at strike, electronic warfare, and networking, it cannot match the F-22's raw kinematic performance—its speed, altitude, and maneuverability. The Sea Raptor would have given the carrier air wing an unmatched "first-day-of-war" fighter to clear the skies of enemy aircraft, a role the F-35C is simply not optimized for.

2. Underestimating the Rise of Peer Competitors

The early 1990s were marked by the end of the Cold War, which led to a strategic shift known as the "peace dividend." Defense spending was slashed, and the perceived need for an expensive, high-end air superiority fighter like the F-22N vanished. Fast forward to the mid-2020s, and the landscape is dramatically different. China is rapidly fielding advanced carrier technology, including the J-35B, a stealth fighter designed for their new CATOBAR carriers. This emergence of a peer-level threat in the maritime domain highlights the Navy's current lack of a dedicated, high-performance air superiority platform to counter it, a role the F-22N would have seamlessly filled.

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3. The Unavoidable Compromise of the F-35C

The F-35 program, with its three distinct variants (A, B, and C), was a cost-saving measure designed to create a common platform across the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. However, the F-35C variant, designed for carrier operations, required compromises. Its larger wing and robust landing gear, while necessary, still result in a fighter that is slower and less agile than the F-22. The F-22N, being a dedicated naval adaptation of an air superiority design, would have retained more of the original Raptor’s kinematic edge, providing a higher-end capability that the F-35C simply cannot deliver.

4. Missing the Opportunity for a True Carrier-Based Interceptor

The F-22N was envisioned as the spiritual successor to the F-14 Tomcat, the Navy's iconic fleet defense interceptor. The Tomcat was retired and its role was absorbed by the F/A-18 Super Hornet, a successful multi-role fighter but one that lacks the stealth and supercruise of a fifth-generation jet. The Sea Raptor would have provided a massive leap in interception capability, able to patrol vast swaths of ocean at supersonic speeds without relying on afterburners, drastically increasing its combat radius and reaction time—a critical factor in the expansive Pacific theater.

5. The Long-Term Cost of Program Gaps

By canceling the F-22N, the Navy created a generational gap in its carrier-based air superiority capabilities. This gap is now forcing the service to make an enormous, costly leap to the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, also known as the F/A-XX, which is currently under development. Had the F-22N been procured, the Navy would have a proven, high-performance fifth-generation fighter in its inventory today, allowing for a more gradual and less risky transition to future sixth-generation platforms. The immediate need to counter advanced threats has made the F-22N's absence a palpable strategic weakness that NGAD is now racing to fix.

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The Legacy of the Sea Raptor and Modern Relevance

While the F-22N Sea Raptor will never fly, its ghost serves as a potent reminder of the importance of maintaining pure air superiority capabilities. The F-22 Raptor itself is now facing retirement by 2030 due to high operational costs and obsolescence in some areas, further emphasizing the need for a successor.

The current debate centers on whether the F-35C is sufficient to handle the most challenging air-to-air scenarios posed by rivals. Many defense analysts argue that the F-35C is a superb multi-role fighter, but that the U.S. Navy needs a dedicated "Sea Raptor" equivalent—whether that be the NGAD program or a future adaptation—to ensure absolute air dominance over the world's oceans. The lessons learned from the F-22N's cancellation continue to shape the Navy's ambitious plans for its future carrier air wing.