I feel that people here are confusing NATO airlift needs with European or national airlift needs.
Yes, the C-17 is a good airlift aircraft but should be only bought in smalls numbers for an European airlift group that would serve all European NATO-members.
Now, replacing the A400M project with the C-17? That’s basically replacing the old C-130 with C-17 instead of A400M, and that seems plain stupid.

Why would a country like Spain or Portugal buy C-17 to replace its C-130 fleets?
Even now the C-295 is more than enough to cover most of these countries’ missions, more specifically flying supplies and other stuff to the OT in which they’re involved. The A400M will be more than enough to serve all its costumers’ needs, which include secondary missions and operations – like air refueling and search and rescue – where a C-17 would be considered “overkill”, when even most of the vehicles that they operate (i.e. APC, tactical vehicles, and weapon systems) can be transported by A400M.

Best regards,