Boeing defense unit to cut 800 jobs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Wednesday it would cut about 800 jobs, or one-quarter of the staff, from its defense unit operations in Wichita, Kansas.

The cuts at the facility, which builds and modifies military planes, come with the winding down of work on tankers for Italy and Japan, and the delay in the U.S. Air Force awarding a contract on renewing its own fleet of tankers, the company said.

Boeing's integrated defense systems unit, based in St. Louis, has about 71,000 employees.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby, editing by Richard Chang)