Agreed, Major fuselage sections building now in germany. Also understand the wings have been completed here in Blighty. It is taking shape and certainly beyond being a concept. If it wasn't for the pressure of these two idiotic wars I'm sure you chaps would be looking forward to the A400M coming into service.
In the meantime, why not buy a few more Tristars from the desert supermarket as a long haul stop gap. I bet there are a few configured as freighters sitting there. Could that relieve some C130J from flying routes and allow them to do what they were built for? Speaking as somebody who had the fun of flying east of Suez in a whistling wheelbarrow I can see the folly of the 1974 cuts.
I take my hat off to all involved in trying to keep things moving.