Phase-out of the simulator maintenance career field in the United States Armed Forces is now well under way. Whether or not contractors can successfully maintain the military's training devices is not at issue. Instead, tomorrow's challenge will be providing cost-effective and timely support for military trainers while ensuring trainer effectiveness and configuration management of the devices. If we are to meet that challenge, straight forward contracts that require trainer availability must become commonplace. Support contracts that include incentive and penalty provisions will benefit both government and industry. From the user's perspective, this paper discusses the need for guaranteed trainer availability within the Armed Forces aircrew training community, and proposes methods of implementing contractor support for existing and future aircrew training devices without sacrificing trainer availability. The author focuses on available methods to successfully transition from either organic support to contractor maintenance to full contractor logistic support. Benefits of contract support along with pitfalls of current support techniques are examined. The author also explores the need for enforceable contracts that will enable both the government and industry to capitalize on a successful transition to contractor logistic support.