Since the Air Force of each country started paying their attention to the night bombing, the bombing became more effective than ever. To fight against the night bombing, a series of night fighter were put into use. The American start their night fighter program on 1940.The Army use the P-70 Havoc and Beaufighter to fight with the Japanese until the first 45 P-61 Black Widow were in active service in October,1943.

But both the P-61A and P-61B were felt to have a deficiency in top speed and operational service ceiling. To improve the performance, two new more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800C engines were applied. With this increase in power, the top speed and altitude were increased to 430 mph and 30,000 feet.

Another changes on the P-61C was the wide chord propellers and special "fighter brakes" which allows the P-61C to turn much tighter and avoid overshooting targets.