There are milestones for the Tac role but not on initial arrival.
The problem with getting the Tac clearances done by Airbus is that this is a 6-nation project with differing requirements/loads. The work share allows a basic clearance to be completed and this was agreed by the 6-nations but it does not include every load in every configuration; to expect Airbus to provide that would be overly optimistic and also very expensive and time consuming.
The procurement process was supposed to certify a civil aircraft and then apply a military delta to that civil certification. However, there have been problems because the delta is larger than expected because
- We, the nations, didn't write the requirements explicitly enough, and,
- Airbus mis-understood the complexity of aerial delivery operations and the risks that were entailed.
If it arrives, it will arrive, but not soon enough...