Northrop Grumman is a Stagnant Defense Contractor
The third-largest U.S. defense contractor makes unique weapons like stealth bombers and silo-launched nuclear missiles. It is however in every respect a typical dead player of defense contracting.
Northrop Grumman Corporation, with 2024 revenues of $41 billion and a market capitalization of around $70 billion (NOC) as of June 2025, is the world’s fourth-largest defense contractor behind Lockheed Martin, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), and RTX Corporation, previously known as Raytheon.1 Like other legacy U.S. defense contractors, Northrop Grumman is structured internally as a kind of holding company for a disparate set of technical and military capabilities that the U.S. government may wish to employ in the future. The company is developing the B-21 Raider long-range strategic stealth bomber, which will replace its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber that is the only stealth bomber in service in the world; it is developing the LGM-35 Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which is the U.S.’ sole replacement for its entire land-launched nuclear ICBM fleet; and it also develops solid rocket motors, specialized pieces of spaceborne equipment like the James Webb Space Telescope, and a wide array of sensors and components for vehicles, weapons, and military infrastructure built by other companies for the U.S. government.