![f 22 raptor vertical takeoff f 22 raptor vertical takeoff](https://duotechservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/usaf-f22-insane-takeoff.jpg)
A new sweep wing design likely wouldn’t alleviate the high operational costs associated with the Tomcat. First and foremost, the Navy was already dealing with the high cost of maintaining the sweep wing apparatus on the F-14 Tomcat. That variable-sweep wing design itself brought a slew of its own problems engineers would need to solve. Related: F-14 TOMCAT: IRAN’S BEST FIGHTER JET USED TO BE AMERICA’S TOP GUN The NATF-22 would also have to leverage the same sort of variable-sweep wing approach found on the F-14 to grant the aircraft the ability to fly slowly enough to safely land aboard a carrier. The fuselage needs to be more physically robust to withstand the incredible forces applied to it during catapult launches and short-distance landings supported by a tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. Aircraft designed for carrier operations have to manage a very different set of take-off and landing challenges than their land-based counterparts. Navy opted to pursue a carrier-capable variant of the F-22, there would have been a number of significant technical hurdles to overcome.
![f 22 raptor vertical takeoff f 22 raptor vertical takeoff](https://images01.military.com/sites/default/files/media/equipment/military-aircraft/f-22-raptor/2014/02/f-22-raptor_011.jpg)
As a result, the NATF-22 concept was dropped in early 1991. By 1990, some seven years before the F-22 would first take to the sky, Admiral Richard Dunleavy, the man responsible for outlining the Navy’s requirements for a new fighter, was quoted as saying that he didn’t see any way the F-22 could be incorporated into an affordable plan for Naval aviation. In a prelude to things to come, the NATF program, and its associated plans for an NATF-22, were soon seen as prohibitively expensive.