Contract Training Systems, once the "leading edge" innovation of the ‘80s, are now routinely meeting the training needs of a variety of commercial and government customers. Rising costs of and increased confidence in contractors’ abilities created an opportunity for training companies to provide services that were formerly in the customer's, domain.

Aircrew training was previously accomplished through the piecemeal purchase and integration of training aids, training devices, and traditional classroom lecture and orientation. Contractors provided initial training to military and civil service personnel who then became the instructional staff. This approach generally resulted in the following: Initial knowledge was frequently lost early in the program because of government personnel turnover; under-utilization of training resources such as simulators became commonplace; maintaining currency of the course syllabi with the aircraft was difficult; a "Training System" sense was never developed.

This paper discusses "ground-up" training system development and the special problems presented in creating a contract training system while aircraft design and operational employment issues are evolving. The U.S. Navy's E-6A (TACAMO) Contract Flight Crew Training System (CFCTS) will be used as the discussion model.