It's a tough time to be in the defense industry. With mounting cuts at the Department of Defense growing and sequestration up for a vote again soon, the sector's biggest players have had to cope with a business under attack. Defense giant Northrop-Grumman has felt the heat lately, as the company's shares have fallen more than 2.7% to start a lackluster year. In order to learn what's ahead for the company, let's take a look Northrop's quarterly earnings that were announced yesterday. Beating the Street Northrop did manage to beat analyst projections on earnings, despite total profit falling 2.7% year over year for the fourth quarter. The company recorded earnings per share of $2.14, a full $0.05 higher than last year's fourth-quarter figure. Analysts had projected adjusted EPS of just $1.74, but even when one-time items were excluded from the figure, Northrop still managed to pull in $2.06 to smash Wall Street's meager expectations.