Northrop Grumman Corporation

US aircraft and military manufacturing company founded in 1939 by John K Northrop, an aircraft designer who had been a cofounder of Lockheed. In 1994 Northrop acquired Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Company (builder of the lunar module that first delivered astronauts to the surface of the moon) and was renamed Northrop Grumman. Subsequent acquisitions have included Westinghouse Electric (radar and other electronic systems), Logicon (defence electronics), Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical (unmanned airborne reconnaissance, surveillance, deception, and target systems), Litton Industries (naval electronics), and Newport News Shipbuilding (the sole builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in the USA).

In 2001 the company's robotic surveillance jet Global Hawk became the first uncrewed aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean.