NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP /DE/

To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Falls Church, Virginia

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial position of Northrop Grumman Corporation and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of earnings and comprehensive income, changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2025, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025, based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated January 26, 2026 expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit and risk committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Revenue Recognition - Estimates of Revenue and Cost at Completion for Select Long-Term Contracts - Refer to Note 1 to the financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

As further described in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company recognizes revenue as control is transferred to the customer, which for long-term contracts is generally over-time using the cost-to-cost method (cost incurred relative to total cost estimated at completion). Use of the cost-to-cost-method requires the Company to make reasonable estimates regarding the revenue and costs associated with the design, manufacture and delivery of their products or services. The Company estimates profit on these contracts as the difference between total estimated revenue and total estimated costs at completion and recognizes that profit as costs are incurred. If it is determined

-46- that a loss is expected to result on an individual performance obligation, the entire amount of the estimable future loss, including an allocation of G&A costs, is charged against income in the period the loss is identified. We analyzed the Company’s contract portfolio to identify contracts that we believe had elevated financial or performance risk. For those contracts identified, the evaluation of one or more of the assumptions used to recognize revenue required extensive audit effort due to the complexity of the contracts and a high degree of auditor judgment.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the revenue and cost estimates for these contracts identified included the following, among others:

•We tested the design and operating effectiveness of controls over the significant assumptions and judgments underlying the estimates of revenues and costs to completion associated with these long-term contracts.

•Based on the risk characteristic identified on an individual contract, we evaluated certain revenue and cost assumptions by:

–Reading the underlying contract and any amendments or modifications to understand the contractual requirements and performance obligations.

–Assessing the timing of recognition of any incentive fees or award fees based on contract terms and relevant historical trends.

–Evaluating management’s ability to achieve the estimates of remaining revenue and costs by performing inquiries with the Company’s program and business management regarding their basis of estimates including work plans, engineering specifications, program labor and suppliers, challenges or opportunities related to the program, actual performance to date compared to plan, and any recent correspondence between the Company and the customer on changes, or expected changes, in scope or contractual terms.

–Evaluating selected changes to the estimates of costs to completion and obtaining supporting documentation on the appropriateness of the timing and amounts of these changes in estimates.

–Testing the accuracy and completeness of the information used in developing estimates, as well as the mathematical accuracy of management’s calculation of revenue recognized during the period for the performance obligations.

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