The Buffalo was the result of a US Navy requirement to replace the Grumman F3F carrier-based fighter. It was a single engine monoplane, with foldable wingtip sections, retractable landing gear and a tailhook. Its American competitors were the Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Seversky P-35. Because of the fact that the F2A was the first aircraft made by Buffalo, it should have been called, based on the former US Navy policy, "Brewster FA". The reason for the name "F2A" is probably the biplane fighter Fokker XFA-1, which is already called "FA".