Crikey Good Mickey,
let me get this right,the C130J has the best cargo hold known to Loadmaster except........we dont have it! (fancy cargo handling not J).
And the J has "sheer power" and the C-17 is the finest airlifter known to man.
Now all this may be true but the C-17 came within a whisker of been cancelled for the unheard of "mismanagement and cost overuns and ongoing technical problems" (20 April 2001 Proj on Govt Oversight)
The C130J is a fine aeroplane due in no small part to the work done by the people involved since its procurement(before anyone starts!)
But the C-17 was around $230million a copy(2001) and Lockheed Martin are a bunch of sharks that almost went to the wall. To retrospetively fit a winch/enhanced cargo handling/flir/rwr/sense of humour is so fearsomely expensive it is not politically viable.
Now the A400 should be a fantastic aeroplane but we will not have it until the end of the decade,in the meantime we will have a fudge and less people will be asked to do more, until were doing everything with nothing
Apologies for the rubbish typing ,its been a long day.