STORY: Airbus is cutting just over 2,000 jobs in its Defence and Space division.

That’s about 5% of headcount in the unit.

More than half the cuts will come in its Space Systems business, which has been making heavy losses on satellites.

The company brought forward a statement confirming the news after reports by Reuters that cuts were planned.

However, the restructuring is less fierce than expected.

Back in October, the aerospace giant had said 2,500 jobs could go.

Now it says the new plan will involve no compulsory redundancies.

The cuts will be spread across the firm’s four host nations – France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

Airbus says the relevant governments have been brief on the plan, which is part of a restructuring dubbed “Proton”.

The space business has been a growing problem for European firms, which have specialized in large, complex satellites.

They’ve been caught out by the move to smaller, cheaper orbiters, like those used by Elon Musk’s Starlink space internet business.

France’s Thales is also in talks with unions over cuts to its space unit.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that it would join forces with Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo to build a European rival to Starlink.