The Australian Air Force discovered the hard way, when our then Labour government failed to allow the purchase of a 707 simulator.
After the sad loss of one with all crew deceased, they suddenly came to the understanding that they were one of the greatest users of this aircraft. So in record time one was found and commissioned.
After that it was policy for at least large aircraft a simulator would be part of the purchase package for any new product. So even though we have only four C17's (which are not enough) we do have a simulator which is far more cost affective.
One of the reasons the 707 were taken out of service, was their number of cycles, which could have been greatly reduced if the 707 simulator had been procrured much earlier.
The long term concept of using other location simulators was not attractive, at least we are now masters of our own destiny, a concept that we are very comfortable with.
I guess from a concept of reducing cycles etc on your C17 a case could be worked up for purchase.
Regards
Col