A proposed naval variant of the YF-23 known as the NATF-23 was considered as an F-14 Tomcat replacement. The original YF-23 design was first considered but would have had issues with flight deck space handling, storage, landing, and catapult launching reasons requiring a different design. A NATF-23 wind tunnel test model DP527, tested for 14,000 hours, was donated by Boeing in 2001 to the Bellefontaine Neighbors Klein Park Veterans Memorial

The NATF-23, the schematics of which surfaced in the 2010s, was different in many ways, the diamond wing was located as far back as possible, it has conventional twin tails instead of the ruddervator with serrations for low RCS and increased maneuverability at low speeds for aircraft carrier operations, folding wing capability for flight deck storage, reinforced landing gear, tailhook and canards for landing on aircraft carriers and thrust vectoring nozzles. The intakes were also different as they were a quarter circle with serrations and were to have an increased 48 ft wingspan and a 62 ft length