Jan 28 (Reuters) - Boeing ( BA ) on Tuesday reported an

annual loss of $11.83 billion, its largest since 2020, as it

grappled with problems at its commercial and defense units and

the fallout from a crippling strike by U.S. West Coast factory

workers.

The loss demonstrates the challenges facing CEO Kelly

Ortberg in turning around the planemaker as it cedes more ground

to rival Airbus in the delivery race and comes under

the crosshairs of regulators and customers following a series of

missteps.

Ortberg, who took the reins of the planemaker in August,

however, said the company was making progress on restoring

stability to its struggling production lines after a harrowing

mid-air accident in 2024 raised concerns about the safety of its

jets.

Boeing's ( BA ) fourth-quarter results included "disappointing"

charges in several fixed-price defense programs, Ortberg said,

while adding that the company was "now more proactive and

clear-eyed on the risks" to the programs.

The company's Defense, Space & Security business has lost

$3.15 billion in the first nine months of 2024.

The planemaker last week flagged an overall fourth-quarter

loss of about $4 billion, nearly triple the size expected by

Wall Street.

Ortberg reiterated the company's four-part plan to turn the

business around including undertaking a "multi-year journey" to

fix Boeing's ( BA ) culture, "perhaps the most important change we need

to make."

After banking record-high profits in the 2010s, Boeing ( BA ) has

bled more than $20 billion since 2019 after two fatal crashes of

its best-selling 737 MAX jet triggered production quality and

safety concerns and worries that it had misled regulators during

the plane's certification process.

The COVID-19 pandemic further squeezed the company, while

the mid-air panel blowout on a nearly new 737 MAX in early 2024

dragged Boeing ( BA ) into another crisis.

"We have completed deep dives on all of our challenging

fixed-price development programs," Ortberg said on Tuesday in a

letter to employees.

Ortberg added Boeing ( BA ) has made progress with its supply chain

and has returned to an output rate of five 787 jets per month at

the end of 2024, despite delays in areas like seats.

Boeing's ( BA ) commercial planes division, now focused on getting

three of its models certified, has a good handle on fixing a

thrust link issue uncovered on its 777X widebody, which resumed

flight tests earlier this month, he added.

Ortberg was guarded in his message about the status of

solving problems with anti-icing systems on the 737-7 and -10

models. The company is "still working through the testing phase

focusing on finalization of the anti-icing design solution," he

said.

The company continues to invest in "core businesses while

streamlining our portfolio in areas that are not core to our

future," he said.

(Reporting By Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru, Allison

Lampert in Montreal and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by

Anil D'Silva)