AEROSPACE

Defense Firms Team Up on Star Wars Bid: Calabasas-based Lockheed Corp. and Bethesda, Md.-based Martin Marietta Corp. have joined to compete for a contract to develop the Strategic Defense Initiative’s National Missile Defense System Ground Based Interceptor program, the companies said. Initiated by the 1991 National Missile Defense Act, the program calls for deployment, as early as 1996, of 100 ground-based interceptors capable of distinguishing and destroying ballistic missile warheads in space. Martin Marietta Electronics, Information & Missiles Group, as prime contractor, will perform work on the program at Orlando, Fla. Lockheed, as principal subcontractor, will conduct its work in Sunnyvale, Calif.