Agreed it's late - the causes are well known, from the lack of supervision by previous Airbus management (not only on this programme, and for which heads did roll) to possible excess of confidence in Spain and a "misunderstanding" on the part of a member of the engine consortium ... and so on. The question of "Where do we go from here?" is being answered; the product seems to be doing well in flight tests so far, and customer pilots will, it seems, soon be able to handle it for themselves.
Britain's new government, with President Obama's help, may well have got out of Afghanistan before the A400 goes into RAF service (after the French and German air forces), but that's a possible obstacle much further down the road. For the time being it seems to be holding to the new schedule.
Across the Atlantic, Boeing's newest and finest is late too, as you will also be well aware, and they're having troubles on the tanker front as well.
Nobody's perfect!
