(Defenselink -- September 24, 2002) McDonnell Douglas Corp., St. Louis is being awarded an estimated $510,726,370 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to study, design, develop, and implement enhancements to F/A-18 embedded avionics, as well as ground-based F/A-18 mission planning and debriefing. These enhancements will support F/A-18 aircraft operated by the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and the governments of Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Switzerland, Finland and Malaysia. Work will be performed in St. Louis (95 percent) and China Lake, Calif. (five percent) and is to be completed by September 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (93.5 percent) and the governments of Switzerland (six percent) and Canada (one-half percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. The Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake is the contracting activity (N68936-02-C-0043).