To oversimplify, J is a K with knobs on that never got cleared for the full gamut of capabilities that the legacy aircraft could perform. It is still a C-130 with decades of accumulated knowledge and experience to know what it can do, which is a lot! The A400m is a brand new aircraft designed by people who make fantastic airliners - and that is reflected in what happens up front and how well it performs in the bits that look like airliner ops - but the disconnect comes when airdrop or any military specific action is required. This is either because it simply hasn’t been released for use by Airbus yet in the block upgrades - for the sake of avoiding journos scraping things out of context I’ll avoid mentioning specifics - or because it simply hasn’t been tested and introduced as a feature.
There are - as always - two mindsets at work. One which simply assumes this new aircraft should do the same as the old aircraft but with bigger numbers. The second thinks we should reassess what the requirements for a TacAT / SF Support aircraft are, which will save cash in T&E, Training, Aircraft Fatigue etc. The first group - usually operators of previous types - will always slate the second as apologists for when the new aircraft can’t do a particular skill the old one could, but as time and tech progresses, will we need to have our A400M wazzing around at OLF (or even low level other than over the DZ) or dropping a multitude of different store types (of which only a ew ever get used)? The line is there somewhere but in n age where capability doesn’t trump cash and risk aversion is king, my money’s on the 400 being a Strat Airifter with some lite-tac capability as its cheaper and safer.