question:
The competition between the two veritech companies in Macross Plus parallels a recent competition for the US military. What was this competition?
answer:
During the mid 1980's the Pentagon started a program to replace the F-15 Eagle with a new air superiority fighter: the ATF, or Advanced Tactical Fighter. Two teams, Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics, and Northrop/McDonnell Douglas built the YF-22 and YF-23 fighters respectively. The more conventional YF-22 won the competition, and the F-22 Raptor is the result.