The Boeing Co. [BA] plans to eliminate the jobs of up to 900 workers who work on the Delta launchers and the C-17 military cargo plane in Huntington Beach, Calif., during the next two years.

About 600 of the jobs are in production and are split about evenly between the Delta and C-17 lines. The other 300 positions are support jobs.

Boeing said it will transfer most of the production of the Delta launchers to Pueblo, Colo, and Decatur, Ala., where it built a new plant for the Delta last year.

The company said the cutback and consolidation of work on the Delta are necessary because of a worldwide reduction in demand for launch services. It already has cut the production of Deltas by about half since January 1999.

Delta Manufacturing Moving From Huntington Beach To Pueblo:

• Delta 2 payload attach assemblies
• Delta 2 blankets and wire harnesses
• Delta 2 and Delta 3 tubing/welded ducts
• Delta 2 and Delta 3 subassembly work

Delta Manufacturing Moving From Huntington Beach to Decatur:

• Delta 2 and Delta 3 skin machining, processing and forming
• Delta 2 and Delta 3 ring manufacturing
• Delta 2 and Delta 3 center bodies, engine frames, aft skirts, equipment shelves, socketrons and thrustbeams
• Delta 2 first-stage tank assembly
• Delta 4 tubing/welded ducts

Delta Manufacturing Moving From Pueblo To Decatur:

• Delta 3 and Delta 4 fairings
• Delta 4 blankets and wire harnesses
• Delta 4 upper-stage assembly