Not having the C17 order book to hand I would still suggest that if you were to put a bid in for 'x' C17s today they would be
fully operational out of Lye/Brize/wherever far sooner than the equivalent capability in A400M. The A400M has not flown yet. I'm assuming it then has to go through the full flight test schedule (and perhaps a full Boscombe flight schedule (unless they are being run concurrently). Even then when have we ever bought an aircraft into Service that is fit for everything we require of it straight away? I would imagine we could pick up a C17 from the factory (waiting list notwithstanding), and apart from a paint job and a shakedown, pretty much have it on the flight line straight away. Despite a lot of confidence from posters on this thread I cannot see that being the same for the A400M. Problem is the longer we wait then either the longer the queue gets for the C17 or worse the production line is shut down (if it hasn't been already
) or worse still the 'fixed price' for the A400M goes up again (
) and so we buy less .....