WICHITA — Boeing plans to shutter operations in Wichita, where it has built airplanes since 1929, by the end of 2013 as military projects dry up amid U.S. spending constraints.
Job reductions at the plant that employs more than 2,160 workers will begin in the third quarter of 2012, Boeing said in a statement Wednesday. Work on the aerial-refueling tankers the Pentagon ordered in February will be done at the planemaker’s wide- body jet factory in Washington state instead, and some existing work will be moved to Texas and Oklahoma.
Boeing said in November it would decide by early 2012 whether to close its Kansas facilities, including the military-aircraft plant. The departure from Wichita will be “a historic moment, but reflects the economic reality of a changing and shrinking defense budget,” said Howard Rubel, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York.
The military faces $450 billion in additional reductions through 2021, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta plans to present results today of the Pentagon’s strategic review of its roles and missions worldwide. Mark Bass, vice president for maintenance, modification and upgrades for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, declined to discuss financial details of the closing. Bloomberg News
