Northrop Grumman

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Northrop Grumman Corporation, headquartered in West Falls Church, Virginia, is a major American aerospace and defense technology company. The corporation designs, manufactures, and markets an expansive portfolio of systems, encompassing aeronautics, space systems, and defense technologies. Its product line includes missile systems, guided projectiles, electronic warfare platforms, ammunition, military aviation systems, cybersecurity infrastructure, and surveillance technologies. As of 2022, Northrop Grumman ranked as the world’s third-largest defense contractor by revenue. The company supplies the Israeli military with a diverse range of military hardware and subsystems. These technologies are integrated into Israel's primary defense platforms, including frontline fighter aircraft, naval missile vessels, and advanced trainer aircraft. A significant portion of these procurements is facilitated through the United States government’s Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. International human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented the deployment of these weapon systems during major military operations in the Gaza Strip. Reports from these organizations and subsequent international legal assessments have raised critical concerns regarding civilian casualties, the destruction of residential and public infrastructure—such as healthcare, educational, and utility facilities—and the broader humanitarian impact of the blockade maintained since 2007. Within aviation programs, Northrop Grumman plays a principal role in the development and manufacturing of components for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. Furthermore, the company maintains a strategic agreement with Elbit Systems, Israel's largest defense contractor, to supply essential components specifically for the Israeli Air Force's F-35 fleet. For the IDF’s primary multirole combat aircraft, the Lockheed Martin F-16, Northrop Grumman manufactures high-criticality electronics, including the AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures system and the AN/APG-68(V)9 multi-mode fire-control radar. Additionally, in 2012, Northrop Grumman Italia secured a contract to supply its LISA-200 Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) for the Israeli military's fleet of Alenia Aermacchi M-346 advanced trainer aircraft, forming part of a broader avionic modernization program overseen by the corporation. The company's involvement extends to missile systems and rotary-wing modernization. Through a joint venture with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman manufactures the AN/APG-78 Longbow fire-control radar system, an architecture designed specifically for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter to guide AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire radar-guided missiles. Since 1998, Northrop Grumman has been contracted to upgrade Israel’s fleet of AH-64A Apache helicopters to the advanced AH-64D Apache Longbow configuration, satisfying broader IDF requirements for enhanced rotary-wing capabilities, fire-control systems, and precision-guided munitions. These Apache helicopters, alongside F-35 and F-16 aircraft, have been deployed extensively in major military actions in the Gaza genocide . In the naval sector, beginning in the early 1980s, Northrop Grumman supplied the Israeli Navy with Sa'ar 5-class corvettes, which serve as heavily armed surface combatants. These vessels are actively deployed in naval operations, including the enforcement of the maritime blockade off the Gaza coast. A Sa'ar 5-class vessel also participated in the 2010 interception of the Mavi Marmara (the Free Gaza Flotilla), an incident involving an unarmed Turkish aid ship that resulted in the deaths of nine activists and was subsequently reviewed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding potential violations of international humanitarian law. Beyond these major platforms, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman subsidiary Orbital Sciences in 2018 to provide Israel with GQM-163A Coyote Supersonic Sea-Skimming Targets (SSST), which are base vehicles utilized by the Israeli military to simulate advanced anti-ship cruise missile threats during naval defense training exercises. -- Listed on NYSE (NOC), Northrop Grumman is backed by leading sovereign wealth funds, most notably NBIM.