No news = bad news ?
In all this hoo-ha about the A400M programme, I'm surprised and worried that no news is even seeping out about "progress" with the engine control software. Nobody talks about how the engine programme is/was managed, and EADS is blamed for every delay, while airframes sit in Spain waiting for the engine side to come up with what they are contracted to provide.
I assume that EADS "accepts" this situation, as programme overall manager, but the silence about remedial action (if needed ?) in the engine programme is like waiting for the second shoe to drop. EADS may be trying to get that side sorted behind the scenes, without public spats about the clear failure to provide an airworthy power plant which would "upset" sensitive (but apparently not very competent) partners.
The story of the engine's development might provide good material for real investigative journalists or even conspiracy-seekers in the film industry, but surely it's well past time for some "authority" on the engine side to come out from EADS' shadow and provide something more than Soviet-style platitudes about "the programme is proceeding well according to schedule".
Once the engines are working properly will be the time to blog about the airframe's performance - and if they don't get the software sorted, the programme's failure would be clearly seen to have been caused by incompetence outside the direct control of EADS/Airbus Military ...