Who Owns Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems?

The sector draws on two of the most storied aircraft lineages in American aviation. Northrop Corporation, founded by Jack Northrop in 1939, spent decades pursuing the flying wing design that culminated in the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which first flew in 1989. Grumman, founded by Leroy Grumman in 1929, built the Navy's carrier aircraft for half a century, including the F6F Hellcat, F-14 Tomcat, and the E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning family.

After the 1994 merger, the combined company's aircraft business produced B-2 sustainment work, F/A-18 structure work as a Boeing subcontractor, and the Global Hawk high-altitude surveillance drone, which entered service in the early 2000s and flew extensive reconnaissance missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sector's defining modern program began in October 2015, when the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman the Long Range Strike Bomber contract, defeating a Boeing-Lockheed Martin team. The aircraft, designated B-21 Raider, was publicly unveiled in December 2022 and flew for the first time in November 2023. The Air Force plans to buy at least 100 aircraft, and the program entered low-rate initial production while flight testing continued through 2024 and 2025.

Other major programs followed. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye entered carrier service as the Navy's airborne command aircraft, with production continuing into the late 2020s. The MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drone entered service with the Navy, and Australia became its first international customer. The sector also produces the F-35 center fuselage at its Palmdale, California facility.

Effective January 1, 2025, Northrop consolidated its strike and surveillance aircraft work under Aeronautics Systems, positioning the sector as the company's center of gravity for crewed and uncrewed military aviation through the late 2020s as B-21 production ramps up.