I remember the fiasco that the Americans went through, with cost over runs, delays and threats to cancel their large military transport....................... that was the C-17, and look how that evolved.
Excellent point.
On the other hand, once Douglas actually started producing C-17s, the airplane had very few technical problems and the program got on track quickly and production did a steady ramp up. After starting A400 production the program has been faced with the loss of one airplane, lots of technical problems, a production halt, the inability to perform a critical mission (helo tanking), and now a severe production slow down with talk of needing redesign of the engine system. For the sake of Airbus and the European militaries counting on A400, I hope they can resolve these issues. And since there's no in-production alternative, they pretty well must fix them, no matter the cost.