PARIS (Reuters) -Airbus is cutting 2,043 jobs in its Defence & Space businesses, or 6% of the divisional workforce, drawing back slightly from an earlier target of up to 2,500 job reductions, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

More than half the cuts - affecting 1,128 jobs - will fall in the Space Systems business following 1.5 billion euros ($1.58 billion) of recent writedowns, they told Reuters, asking not to be named.

An Airbus spokesperson declined to comment on the figures, provided to unions in a briefing.

Airbus in October announced plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs in Defence and Space, or 7% of the workforce, after heavy losses in its satellites business led by the troubled OneSat programme.

The European aerospace group has said it aims to carry out the cuts by mid-2026 but will hold off taking an immediate restructuring charge pending talks with unions.

In the plans outlined to unions on Wednesday, Airbus plans to cut 250 jobs in its Air Power or combat aircraft sub-division and 47 in Connected Intelligence, the sources said. The divisional headquarters will shed 618 posts, they added.

Germany will bear the largest share of the overall cuts with 689 positions affected, followed by France with 540, Britain with 477, Spain with 303 and other non-core nations with 34.

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