JTIDS
I think you were making the point that Albert isn't big enough to carry a whole bunch of stuff we've bought to protect our ground forces?
Uncle G is quite correct, Afghanistan (& Iraq) set a template for how our enemies will operate against us in the med-term future, be that co-in, state on state, or proxy inter-state warfare.
Our technology is difficult to defeat head-on, but stick a big dumb bomb by the side of a road and eventually you'll send body bags home and erode our will to fight. If you assume you need boots on the ground at some point in a campaign, then you need to protect them. You can do this by lots of means, but protected mobility is one method. If you want to move this by air, you need something bigger than Albert.
Eventually of course, if you follow this to the end, you'll need something bigger than A400M (and eventually C17 I guess!) but that will be some time. A400M fills that gap, until something changes!
Sadly, unless Lockheed Martin have invented a Tardis, Albert is a busted flush. Sad as that is to me as a Herk driver...
