I’m sure the C-130J is completely different from the originals built in the 50’s except cosmetically.
My point is why would you want to get into competing with the most universal military cargo carrier ever made? You’re trying to compete against nearly 60 years of design/material/structural/engineering improvements. The aircraft has depots of spare parts all over the world to boot.
Seems to me this effort did nothing but burn up billions of Euros that will never be recoupled.
EADS is nothing but a jobs program. Does that help?