Er, pardon?
You said:
but it is still the only realistic option in the current environment.
No it isn't. It doesn't exist in any viable form....
I said:
There is no other realistic, OTS, medium-size airlifter available.
There isn't! The A400 doesn't exist and neither does the C130XL or anything else floating about on a designer's sketch pad.
There is no other airlifter of similar dimensions/perf/modernity etc to the A400 that could be procured instead of/in addition to the A400 to fill the gaps. The C130 fleet is getting very knackered very quickly. The A400 is drifting further and further to the right. What do you suggest we do? Rather than keep telling us all the things that the A400 will be able to carry how's about we all actually deal with the fast approaching crisis? You telling me the A400 will be able to carry all sorts of stuff is like you me telling you not to worry about your broken down car because in 100 years you'll be able to teleport to work instead. That in no way addresses the immediate problem.
I'm not on any side of the fence, in fact I don't believe there is a fence. I'm just the poor end user watching the current fleet get thrashed to death with no money to support them properly whilst the replacement disappears further and further over the horizon. I'm not knocking the A400 (for the 10 billionth time) I would just like to know what exactly we're going to do when the A400 doesn't start rolling into Op service in 2 years time!!!
There is no need to be defensive - I think we're all mostly agreed that the A400, as and when it turns up, will be a very good bit of kit. It won't be as all-singing-all-dancing as the glossy brochure said it would be but then what new aircraft ever is. The fact that it is being delayed is what is causing us, the end-user, problems and, as I said before, do we do something as a stop-gap or just ignore it and hope it will go away?