The filing desk starts with provenance and definitions, and Northrop Grumman's 10-K supplies both cleanly. The annual report for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed January 27, 2026 (accession 0001133421-26-000003), states that backlog "represents the future sales we expect to recognize on firm orders received by the company," and ties that disclosure to programs including its Space Systems segment.

That definition is the part a markets desk should internalize. For a defense prime, backlog is not a soft pipeline of possibilities — it is contracted future sales tied to firm orders, which is why it functions as a multiyear revenue map rather than a sentiment indicator. Northrop has carried this same definition across its recent annual reports, in the 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 10-Ks, and has historically broken the figure out by segment, including Aeronautics Systems, Defense Systems, and Space Systems.

The segment detail is where the read gets useful. Earlier filings disclosed backlog by business with year-over-year change — Aeronautics Systems, for instance, was reported at roughly $19.4 billion in total backlog in one period — which lets an analyst see which parts of the franchise are building forward coverage and which are working theirs down. A consolidated backlog number tells you the company is booked; the segment split tells you where.

The discipline is to read backlog as coverage, not as a guarantee. The 10-K is explicit that the figure is the sales the company expects to recognize, and recognition depends on execution against program schedules. The value of the disclosure is that it converts a sprawling defense business into a contracted forward view — exactly the kind of structural signal that should outrank a single quarter's print.

The backlog definition and segment history were located and cross-referenced through SEC filings, the SEC filing data API and evidence index. The authority for the quoted language is Northrop Grumman's SEC filing.

Primary source: Northrop Grumman's Form 10-K for FY2025 at sec.gov; the backlog definition is quoted from the filing and compared with prior annual reports. See the SEC filing on sec.gov for the primary record, discovered via SEC filings, the SEC filing data API and evidence index.