Lockheed Martin agreed to conduct joint research with Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has the option to purchase exclusive licenses to products resulting from their research.

The research will focus on material sciences, quantum information science - which combines information science with quantum mechanics - and other areas of joint interest, the companies said on Monday. They did not provide financial details.

"This is another step in Lockheed Martin Israel's long-term plans to develop additional partnerships outside the defense market and partner with the industry and academia in ," said Joshua Shani, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Israel.

Lockheed Martin in August set up a separate subsidiary in focused on technology. It is working with EMC and Ben-Gurion University in southern Israel on joint cyber security research projects