Northrop F-23 Royal Netherlands Air Force

When in 1991 the USAF selected the Lockheed Martin F-22 over the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas F-23 the latter company started an international marketing drive to sell the F-23 to foreign countries.

This resulted in a competition with the JSF program for the replacement of the F-16 in a number of European air forces.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force selected the F-23 Black Widow II in 2008 as the intended successor of the F-16. In 2014 the first of 250 F-23Cs were delivered to the RNLAF and they achieved operational status with 322 squadron in 2016.

The last F-23C was delivered in 2017 and additional 20 F-23Ds two seaters were also delivered in 2017.

The Black Widows received KLu call signs W-001 to W-270.