Swiss Voters Back Purchase of McDonnell’s Hornet Jets : Aerospace: A proposal to cut off warplanes deal is defeated. Hughes Aircraft and Northrop Corp. are subcontractors in the $2.3-billion program.

Struggling military contractor McDonnell Douglas Corp. got a boost Sunday when Swiss voters approved the $2.3-billion purchase of 34 of its F/A-18 Hornet warplanes.

In a referendum, voters turned down an initiative that would have halted their neutral nation’s aircraft purchases before the year 2000. Switzerland’s Military Department and its parliament had already approved the deal, first broached in 1988. A final contract is expected to be signed later this month, McDonnell Douglas said.

The St. Louis-based company has cut thousands of jobs because hard times in both its military and civilian aircraft businesses have cost it millions of dollars. Delays in construction of the C-17 transport plane have also made it a subject of criticism from Washington.

Last month, Undersecretary of Defense John Deutch warned McDonnell Douglas that the Long Beach-based C-17 program would be canceled unless the company acted aggressively to improve management of the project. On May 28, the company won a $325-million increase in the contract to build the transport aircraft, which is designed to land with tanks and other heavy weapons on poor runways near war zones.

McDonnell said it will deliver two complete warplanes for testing and flight evaluation by the Swiss, as well as another 32 kits that will be assembled by the Swiss Federal Aircraft Factory at Emmen, near Lucerne.

The program, which includes spare parts, technical support and training, is worth about $2.3 billion, McDonnell said.

The planes will be equipped with F404-GE-402 Enhanced Performance Engines built by General Electric Co. and upgraded APG-73 radar systems built by General Motors Corp.’s Hughes Aircraft. Northrop Corp., the principal subcontractor, will make the plane’s center and aft fuselage.

McDonnell Douglas said the Swiss chose the F/A-18 Hornet over General Dynamics Corp.’s F-16, Sweden’s JAS-39 and the French Mirage 2000-5.

More than 1,170 F/A-18s are in service worldwide with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and the air forces of Canada, Australia, Spain and Kuwait. The plane became operational with the U.S. military 10 years ago.

The Defense Department said last month that Malaysia is considering buying 18 F/A-18D warplanes with missiles and ammunition in a deal worth $1.6 billion.