[7] Northrop Grumman and its industry partners have won the Collier Trophy nine times, most recently for the development and production of the James Webb Space Telescope, an orbiting observatory launched in 2021.

It was the sole bidder on the Air Force's Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program, which aims to develop and build a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

Later the firm created a myriad of products such as ballistic missiles, all-weather radars, the Apollo Lunar Module, land and sea-based fighter aircraft and Stealth bombers.

[13][14] After the end of the Cold War, Northrop made a series of acquisitions, buying Grumman Aerospace, Westinghouse and TRW Inc. in addition to a number of other enterprises.

[32] During the acquisition process, a new Delaware holding company, NNG, Inc., was formed, which merged with Northrop Grumman through a one-for-one common shares exchange in April 2001.

[33] On November 1, 2001, Northrop Grumman restated its third-quarter profit after halting work on two ships for American Classic Voyages, which filed for bankruptcy protection.

[39] In February 2008 the U.S. Air Force chose KC-30,[40] but in September 2008 the Defense Department suspended the tanker program and in March 2010, Northrop Grumman announced it was withdrawing from the competition, deeming the revised requirements to be weighted in favor of the Boeing KC-46.

[42] Northrop Grumman and Boeing collaborated on a design concept for NASA's upcoming Orion spacecraft (previously the Crew Exploration Vehicle), but the contract went to rival Lockheed Martin on August 31, 2006.

[49] In July 2008, three of four Northrop Grumman employees (Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell) were freed during Operation Jaque after five years of captivity following their aircraft crash in the Colombian jungle.

[52] In November 2010, NASA selected Northrop Grumman for consideration of potential contract awards for heavy lift launch vehicle system concepts, and propulsion technologies.

[58] In July 2013, Northrop Grumman won a training-simulation contract potentially worth $490 million to support the U.S. Air Force's next-generation aerial warfare virtual-training network.

[65] In June 2020, NASA granted a $935 million contract to Northrop Grumman for the Lunar Gateway Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, based on its Cygnus cargo spacecraft.

Northrop Grumman had purchased Russian RD-181 engines to power the Antares 230+ series, and the rocket’s main body was manufactured by Ukraine’s Yuzhmash State Enterprise.

[79] With an emphasis on minimal human oversight, the creation of the Manta Ray represents a significant advancement in unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) technology.

[78] In September 2024, Northrop Grumman won the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) competition to develop and build the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI).

Northrop Grumman also supports the U.S. ballistic missile program, integrates various command, control and intelligence systems, and provides technical and management services, to governmental and military customers, all with an emphasis on cybersecurity.

Northrop Grumman had purchased Russian RD-181 engines to power the Antares 230+ series, and the rocket's main body was manufactured by Ukraine's Yuzhmash State Enterprise.

[101] From 1990 to 2003, before the merger with Grumman in 1994, Kent Kresa was the CEO of the company, who led the serial-acquisition strategy with a total of 15 additional acquisitions from 1994 to 2003, including Litton, Logicon, Westinghouse's defense electronics business, Ryan Aeronautical and Newport News Shipbuilding, and TRW.

[113][114] Prior to 2010, the company was headquartered in Century City, Los Angeles,[115] but announced plans on January 4, 2010, to move to the Washington Metropolitan Area by 2011[116] to be closer to government customers.

[117] CEO Wesley Bush stated that the company needed to be located close to Capitol Hill lawmakers and officials from intelligence and military communities.

"[118] District of Columbia economic development officials were "pitching the city's urban hipness and proximity to Capitol Hill power brokers" to Northrop Grumman.

Maryland promoted its highly educated workforce and its large number of federal facilities, while Virginia marketed itself as a state with relatively low taxes.

[127] Based on 2008 data, Northrop Grumman was the 62nd-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, per the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

[135] In 2019, Northrop Grumman was named the US's largest corporate contributor to water pollution by the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

[140] According to CorpWatch, "at least seven former officials, consultants, or shareholders of Northrop Grumman" have held posts "in the Bush administration...including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Vice-Presidential Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, Pentagon Comptroller Dov S. Zakheim, and Sean O'Keefe, director of NASA."

[143] In 1995, Robert Ferro, an employee for TRW Inc., a company Northrop Grumman acquired in 2002, discovered that satellite components manufactured for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) were faulty and likely to fail in operation.

TRW suppressed Ferro's report of the problem and hid the information from the USAF, even after a satellite in space equipped with the faulty components experienced serious anomalies.

[150] From August 25 to September 2, 2010, Virginia's computer system operated by NG, under a $2.4 billion contract, experienced an outage which resulted in around 45,000 citizens not being able to renew their drivers licenses prior to their expiration.

[154] Northrop Grumman's supply of weapons to Israel led to protests against the company during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, including blocking the entrances at facilities in San Diego and Plymouth, Minnesota.

[159] U.S. State Department investigators found that Litton Industries, a subsidiary acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2000, had provided portions of source code used by guidance and navigation system interfaces aboard Air Force One to a company in Russia in 1998.