Airbus’ defence and space division will cut more than 2,300 jobs worldwide before the end of 2021.
The company blamed a flat market and postponed defence contracts for the redundancies, but maintained that the underlying outlook “remained solid”.
Of the losses, 829 are in Germany, 630 in Spain, 404 in France and 141 in other countries worldwide.
Airbus said a “reinforced profitability program” would follow the announcement and that it would take new measures to increase its competitiveness long-term.
Airbus Defence and Space employs 34,000 worldwide and accounts for a fifth of the aviation giant’s total revenues.
Last year, Airbus’ annual turnover was recorded as US$70 billion.
The announcement comes after its head of defence, Dirk Hoke, said on Saturday that talks were about to start with staff following setbacks with its A400M military transporter, which has recently endured a fresh charge of €1.2 billion.
Repeated technical problems with the A400M have seen Germany refuse to accept two of the planes it ordered.
Meanwhile, a ban on military exports to Saudi Arabia has also hampered the company.
Airbus Defence and Space manufactures everything from fighter planes to drones and satellites.
Its latest project is a concept to adapt a telecom satellite to deflect an asteroid.
