New York, April 22 (Inditop) The world’s largest defence firm, Lockheed Martin Corp, demonstrated its sturdiness Tuesday in the face of a sharp downturn in the US and global economies, reporting first-quarter sales growth of 3.9 percent to $10.4 billion.

The company credited increased non-defence sales of computer services to US government agencies for the revenue improvement.

Profit in the January-March quarter slipped 8.8 percent due to rising pension costs.

Lockheed still hiked its 2009 profit forecast.