Private military company

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Private military corporation
)

Ugandan nationals contracted to Triple Canopy during training in Iraq
, 2011

A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a

private company
providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military contractors".

The services and expertise offered by PMCs are typically similar to those of governmental

bodyguards for key staff or protection of company premises, especially in hostile territories. However, contractors that use armed force in a warzone may be considered unlawful combatants in reference to a concept that is outlined in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly stated by the 2006 American Military Commissions Act.[1]

The services of private contractors are used around the world. P. W. Singer, the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, stated, "In geographic terms, it operates in over 50 countries. It's operated in every single continent but Antarctica."[citation needed] Singer noted that in the 1990s, there were 50 military personnel for every contractor and that the ratio is now 10 to 1.[when?] He also pointed out that the contractors have a number of duties, depending on who hires them.[citation needed] In developing countries that have natural resources, such as oil refineries in Iraq, they are hired to guard the area. They are hired also to guard companies that contract services and reconstruction efforts such as General Electric.

Apart from securing companies, they secure officials and government affiliates. Private military companies carry out many missions and jobs. Some examples have included

close protection for Afghan President Hamid Karzai and piloting reconnaissance airplanes and helicopters as a part of Plan Colombia.[2][3] According to a 2003 study, the industry was then earning over $100 billion a year.[4]

According to a 2008 study by the

Office of the Director of National Intelligence, private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the United States Intelligence Community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets.[5]

Some Countries like India have made these "Private Military Organisations" Illegal.

History

Cold War

David Stirling, founder of the SAS, founded a PMC in the 1960s.

Modern PMCs trace their origins back to a group of ex-SAS veterans in 1965 who, under the leadership of the founder of the SAS, David Stirling and John Woodhouse, founded WatchGuard International (formerly with offices in Sloane Street before moving to South Audley Street in Mayfair) as a private company that could be contracted out for security and military purposes.[6]

The company's first assignment was to go to Yemen to report on the state of the royalist forces when a cease-fire was declared. At the same time Stirling was cultivating his contacts in the Iranian government and exploring the chances of obtaining work in Africa. The company eventually operated in Zambia and in Sierra Leone, providing training teams and advising on security matters. Stirling also organised deals to sell weapons and military personnel to other countries for various privatised foreign policy operations. Contracts were mainly with the Gulf States and involved weapons supply and training. The company was also linked with a failed attempt to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya in 1971. Woodhouse resigned as Director of Operations after a series of disagreements and Stirling himself ceased to take an active part in 1972.[7]

Stirling also founded KAS International (aka KAS Enterprises) and was involved in a collaboration with the

Control Risks Group
and Defence Systems, providing military consultation and training.

UN Mercenary Convention

In 1989

mercenaries was initiated and it entered into force on 20 October 2001.[9]
As of August 2021, the convention had been ratified by 37 states, and signed but not ratified by 9 states.

Post Cold War

Dramatic growth in the number and size of PMCs occurred at the end of the Cold War. The exodus of over 6 million military personnel from Western militaries in the 1990s expanded the recruiting pool for PMCs. Some of the larger corporations were: Vinnell and Military Professional Resources Inc. in the United States; G4S and Keeni-Meeny Services in the United Kingdom; Lordan-Levdan in Israel and Executive Outcomes in South Africa.

Some commentators have argued that there was an exodus from many

US Special Operations Forces[12] and the Canadian Joint Task Force 2.[13]

The Center for Public Integrity reported that since 1994, the Defense Department entered into 3,601 contracts worth $300 billion with twelve U.S.-based PMCs, specifically during the initial response after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.[citation needed]

Domestic operations are generally under the auspice of state or federal agencies such as the

United States State Department
also employs several companies to provide support in danger zones that would be difficult for conventional U.S. forces.

The October 2000

American occupation of Iraq
.

Seaborne PMCs

Armed contractors aboard a merchant ship to deter piracy.

Since the late 2000s, PMCs have become increasingly involved in anti-piracy measures in Somalia and other regions. PMCs remain active in this region, mainly providing security for private shipping through the Gulf of Aden and at times contracting to aid UN efforts. PMCs were hired to deter pirates from attacking vessels and taking the shipping crew and their transport hostage. While a large variety of international naval missions with the same goals such as the EU's Atalanta, NATO's Ocean Shield, and Combined Task Force 150 are and were active in this region, it is still necessary for the shipping companies to have security personnel on deck. Due to their decentralized nature, it can be difficult for the UN or other international organizations to provide effective oversight over what happens on the seas. Whereas the UN showed that between 2010 and 2015 there were over fifty encounters between the national sovereign navies that participated in the missions, resulting in over 1,200 detained pirates, only one PMC published information over this period.[16] Since the PMCs are so much more active in this area, covering a larger part of it through activities on board trading ships, this could be a low estimate.[17] PMC presence in Somalia is an example of two violent non-state actors at sea engaged in combat with each other.

Airborne PMCs (2005)

On April 5, 2005, Jamie Smith, CEO of

heavy-lift cargo, armed escort, and executive air travel to "any location on earth." That marked an expansion of services to rival the capabilities of some countries's armies and air forces.[citation needed
]

2007 Uniform Code of Military Justice amendment

In 2007, the American

."

International Code of Conduct (2008)

In 2008, the

Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies, detailing international legal obligations and specific recommendations related to PSC services procurement practices and operational oversight, as well as clarifying the obligations of States pertaining to the hiring of such entities during armed conflicts.[18] As of December 2018, fifty-four states had signed the Montreux Document.[19]

NGO use of PMCs

As revealed in 2009 by Stoddard et al., the use of private security contractors by

NGOs in dangerous regions is a highly sensitive subject.[20] Quite often the contractors hired are local companies and mostly are unarmed personnel guarding facilities; only rarely are international contractors or mobile armed security personnel used.[20] Many NGOs have sought the services of private security contractors in dangerous areas of operation, such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan
, due to lack of knowledge, skills, and time to adequately meet the challenges of deteriorating security environments; and administrative costs of managing security in-house and potential to outsource the liability.

Contracted for international local
Unarmed guards for facilities/residences/project sites 29% 77%
Physical security for premises 31% 55%
Security management consulting 37% 9%
Security training for staff 41% 4%
Risk assessment/threat analysis 36% 7%
Information services 26% 12%
Armed guards for facilities/residences/project sites 17% 14%
Standby security 13% 16%
Mobile escorts (armed) 9% 13%

However, it has been argued that outsourcing security leaves NGOs reliant on contractors and unable to develop their own security thinking and make their own decisions. Perceived association of PSPs with state security, police or military services in turn compromises the ability of NGOs to claim neutrality, leading to increased risk. Moreover, outsourcing may not necessarily lead to lower costs, and the cost of middlemen may result in more poorly paid and poorly trained personnel, who turn over frequently and cannot adequately perform the job. Finally, NGOs have obligations beyond strictly legal liability that include political, ethical and reputational implications: If the organisation's responsibility to prevent and mitigate any possible negative outcomes is better achieved through in-house security, it is argued, this should be their choice.[20]

The result is that many NGOs are not open about their use of PSPs and researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have found that sometimes statements at NGOs central headquarters contradict those given by local staff.[20] This prevents informative knowledge sharing and debate on the subject needed to improve NGO decisions regarding this issue, though there have been some notable exceptions; namely, the Afghanistan NGO Security Office and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq m.[20]

The private security contractor fulfills many different needs in the private and public sectors. While some nations rely heavily on the input of governments of such nations as the United States, other countries do not trust the U.S., so they tend to look for private contractors who will have a

fiduciary obligation to them.[citation needed
]

ISO for PMSC (2012)

In 2012 were published the

Activities elsewhere

Afghanistan

  • In December 2009, the Congressional Research Service, which provides background information to members of the United States Congress, announced that the deployment of 30,000 extra US troops into Afghanistan could be accompanied by a surge of "26,000 to 56,000" contractors. This would expand the presence of personnel from the US private sector in Afghanistan "to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000." The CRS study said that contractors made up 69 percent of the Pentagon's personnel in Afghanistan in December 2008, a proportion that "apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by the Defense Department in any conflict in the history of the United States." In September 2008 their presence had dropped to 62 percent, and the US military troop strength increased modestly.[22][23][24]
  • Also in December 2009, a
    Bagram air base) to more than 100 forward operating bases and other military facilities in the country.[25]

Africa

  • In 1994 and 1995, the South African-based PMC Executive Outcomes was involved in two military actions in Africa. In the first conflict, Executive Outcomes fought on behalf of the Angolan government against UNITA after a UN-brokered peace settlement broke down. In the second action, Executive Outcomes was tasked with containing a guerrilla movement in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front. Both missions involved personnel from the firm training four to five thousand combat personnel for the Angolan government and retaking control of the diamond fields and forming a negotiated peace in Sierra Leone.
  • In 2000,
    Mi-24 Hind gunship.[26] The report also investigated the failures of the UN Peacekeeping Force and the involvement of mercenaries/private military contractors in providing vital support to UN operations and British military Special Operations in Sierra Leone in 1999–2000.[27]
  • In mid-May 2006, police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrested 32 alleged mercenaries of different nationalities; 19 from South Africa, 10 from Nigeria and three from the United States. Half of them worked for the South African company Omega Security Solutions, and the Americans worked for AQMI Strategy Corp. The men were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, but charges were not pressed. The men were deported to their home countries.[28][29]
  • Due to strain of United States Armed Forces, the U.S. State Department and The Pentagon has also outsourced the expanded military training in Africa to three companies: Military Professional Resources Inc., DFI International, and Logicon (now owned by Northrop Grumman).[30]
  • In 2015,
    chairman of STTEP, Eeben Barlow, is the former CEO and founder of Executive Outcomes.[31][32][33]
  • The Central African-based park-ranger organization African Wildlife Defence Force contracts former servicemen and law enforcement personnel to protect national parks and private game ranches in Africa. Candidates must undergo additional retraining to become park rangers. They are also referred to as Private Ranger Contractors or PRC.[citation needed]
  • According to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), since 2017, the Russian-based PMC, Wagner Group, has been operating continuously in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, as well as in other African countries. Under the guise of helping government's defeat violent insurgencies or fight Islamic extremist movements, the Russian Wagner Group is believed by several U.S. and African government sources, to be responsible for significant crimes against humanity. It is report that hundreds of contractors from the Russian PMC enter these countries each year. The Wagner Group has been accused of extreme violence against African civilians and human rights violations by the U.S. State Department and most European governments.[34]
  • According to the Washington Post, the South African PMC, Executive Outcomes (Founded in 1989), was committing atrocities in Sierra Leone up until the early 2000s, when they left the country and refocused their business on providing domestic security services in their native South Africa.[35][36]
  • In the mid-2000s, a group of self-proclaimed former ANC freedom-fighters, known as the TRAKboys, began to emerge in fringe political circles within Johannesburg and Cape Town. They gained national attention in South Africa when they began calling upon leaders to demand an investigation by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development into the foreign and domestic activities of Executive Outcomes. Failed assassination attempts on several high profile members of the TRAKboys, such as former Cape Town-based manufacturing tycoon, Dylan4K, have led to speculation, conspiracy theories and public outrage directed towards Apartheid-era, Afrikaner-owned PMC's operating in southern Africa.[37][38][39][40]

Balkans

  • In 1995, both Croatia and Bosnia hired Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) to equip, train, and professionalize their armed forces.[30]
  • In 1999, an incident involving DynCorp in Bosnia was followed by a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit being filed against DynCorp employees stationed in Bosnia. It alleged that "employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior and were illegally purchasing women, weapons, forged passports and participating in other immoral acts."

Iraq

Iraqi contract security in the International (Green) Zone of Baghdad

In December 2006, there were estimated to be at least 100,000 contractors working directly for the

trade group the Private Security Company Association of Iraq. In Iraq, the issue of accountability
, especially in the case of contractors carrying weapons, was a sensitive one. Iraqi laws do not hold over contractors.

On 5 December 2005 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld justified the use of PMCs in Iraq on the basis that they were cost effective and useful on the ground. He also affirmed that they were not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.[42]

Two days before he left Iraq,

Order 17" giving all Americans associated with the CPA and the American government immunity from Iraqi law.[43] A July 2007 report from the American Congressional Research Service indicates that the Iraqi government still had no authority over private security firms contracted by the U.S. government.[44]

In 2007, the

military contractors who are deployed in a "declared war
or a contingency operation."

After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the U.S. State Department is reportedly planning to more than double the number of its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress. Its helicopter fleet, which will be piloted by contractors, will grow from 17 to 29.[45]

PMCs supplied support to U.S. military bases throughout the Persian Gulf, from operating mess halls to providing security. They supplied armed guards at a U.S. Army base in Qatar, and they used live ammunition to train soldiers at Camp Doha in Kuwait. They maintained an array of weapons systems vital to the invasion of Iraq. They also provided bodyguards for VIPs, guard installations, and escort supply convoys from Kuwait. All these resources were called upon constantly.[4]

In 2010, several

Blackwater PMC employees "were indicted on unlawful killing charges in connection with their work as US government contractors during the Iraq War"; founder Erik Prince sold the company and departed soon thereafter.[46]

List of defective occurrences

  1. Employees of private military company
    Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2003, and 2004. The U.S. Army "found that contractors were involved in 36 percent of the [Abu Ghraib] proven incidents and identified 6 employees as individually culpable",[47] although none have faced prosecution unlike US military personnel.[47]
  2. On March 31, 2004, four American private contractors belonging to the company
    Operation Vigilant Resolve
    )
  3. On March 28, 2005, 16 American contractors and three Iraqi aides from Zapata Engineering, under contract to the
    US Army Corps of Engineers to manage an ammunition storage depot, were detained following two incidents in which they allegedly fired upon U.S. Marine
    checkpoint. While later released, the contractors have levied complaints of mistreatment against the Marines who detained them.
  4. On June 5, 2005, Colonel Theodore S. Westhusing committed suicide, after writing a report exonerating US Investigations Services of allegations of fraud, waste and abuse he received in an anonymous letter in May.
  5. On October 27, 2005, a "trophy" video, complete with post-production Elvis Presley music, appearing to show private military contractors in Baghdad shooting Iraqi civilians sparked two investigations after it was posted on the Internet.[48][49][50] The video has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services. According to the posters, the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for six years. After the incident the regional director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. State Department each conducted a formal inquiry into the issue. The Army determined that there was no "probable cause to believe that a crime was committed."[51]
  6. On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was revoking the license of the American security firm
    Blackwater USA over the firm's involvement in the deaths of seventeen Iraqis in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.[52][53] The company was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement took effect. Blackwater was one of the most high-profile firms operating in Iraq, with around 1,000 employees as well as a fleet of helicopters in the country. In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court over the incident; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges.[54]
  7. On March 12, 2017, Sallyport Global fired two investigators who alleged sex trafficking, alcohol smuggling, and security lapses by Sallyport employees at Balad Air Base in Iraq.[55]

Middle East

  • On March 27, 2006,
    low intensity conflicts. According to Black, "There is clear potential to conduct security operations at a fraction of the cost of NATO operations." Those comments were later denied.[56]

Latin America

Ukraine

The Russian

"Redut" and the ministerial-affiliated "Patriot" group.[60][61]

Yemen

China

Russia

The

Russian criminal code to recruit, train or finance a mercenary. Also the use of him in an armed conflict or hostilities shall be punished.[66]

AFRF. At the time he proposed forming PMCs from retired military personnel and contractors.[67]

The existence of Russian PMCs seems to go as far back as 2011, when the

StroyTransGaz (STG) and Tatneft have billions of dollars invested in international affairs and like to hire from the Russian PMC sector.[68]

In 2012 Vladimir Putin suggested to the State Duma to consider the legalization of PMCs,[69] although owners of Russian PMCs have claimed that because Russia inherited its legal system from the Byzantine Empire, anything that is not explicitly prohibited is allowed.[70][71]

The Syrian gains of

Patriot PMC and Vega PMC.[68] The MSG crew aboard the Myre Seadiver was arrested in October 2012 while in Nigeria.[67][72]

ISIS.[68] Out of the ashes of the Slavonic Corps was born the Wagner Group.[73]

Two recruiters for the Slavonic Corps were ultimately jailed in October 2014 for their violation of Article 359. They faced up to eight years imprisonment but were convicted for three. Regular squad members were reportedly unpaid and faced no prosecution in Russia.[69]

Not long after the Slavonic Corps fiasco, the Wagner Group PMC made its appearance on the scene.[68] Near the end of 2014, Wagner was given the instructional role of local Basharite militias.[68] Prior to September 2015, the PMCs were Russia's only pseudo-military presence in Syria.[68]

Wagner and Moran both contributed in 2014 to the Russian

War in Donbass;[68] Wagner is known to have fought in Syria since late 2015. One manner of payment to the group is from 25% of the proceeds from captured and secured oil and gas infrastructure in Syria.[73]

In January 2018, Foreign Minister

Sergei Lavrov said of PMC employees that legislation was needed to "protect these people",[73] while Duma member Mikhail Yemelyanov authored a bill to do just that "because private military companies are legal in many countries"; quoth he: "We wrote in the bill that the defence ministry would coordinate and that participation in armed conflicts would only be with their permission."[73]

In February 2023 it was reported that Gazprom would form a PMC of its own, called Fakel. The law "On the Security of Fuel and Energy Facilities" appears now to state that companies in this field "may be granted the right to establish a private security organisation".[74]

The organisation Molfar has investigated 37 private military companies in Russia, and found that all of them are or have been connected to Kremlin. Most of them are also funded by Kremlin. More than half of them are participating in the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In total they have activities in 34 different countries. Russian PMCs are involved in oil and mining operations in 19 countries in Africa.[75]

Other miscellany

Contractor fatalities by employer (2001–2011)
Employer Subsidiaries Fatalities
L3 Communications
Titan Corporation, MPRI 373
The Supreme Group Supreme Food Services 241
Compass Security 163
Service Employees International 127
DynCorp DynCorp Technical Services 101
AEGIS Aegis Defense Service,
Mission Essential Personnel
89

Fatalities

By the end of 2012, the number of contractors who had died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait had reached 3,000. Scholars have studied whether contractor deaths have an effect on the public's "casualty sensitivity" when substituted for military fatalities.[76] Casualty sensitivity refers to the inverse relationship between military deaths and public support for a sustained military engagement. Contractor deaths may account for nearly 30% of total US battlefield losses since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[77]

UN mercenary report

In October 2007, the United Nations released a two-year study that reported that, although hired as "security guards", private contractors performed military duties. A spokesman for the American mission to the U.N. office in Geneva (UNOG) said that "Accusations that U.S. government-contracted security guards, of whatever nationality, are mercenaries is inaccurate."[78] An observer noted that the difficulty in separating private from public troops means that legal proceedings against these violent non-state actors can be complicated, and stated that contracted combatants carry the legitimacy of the state that hires them.[79]

Demands for specific PSC services have grown to record levels in recent decades, and private firm's capabilities now include an array of services that are vital to the success of on-the-ground war fighting as well as other more traditional stability operations and contingency contracting. While past calls for corporate responsibility have heralded successes such as the

ANSI/ASIS PSC.1 and PSC.4
standards.

ASIS Commission on Standards

Founded in 1955,

ANSI-accredited Standards Developing Organization, and within ASIS the ASIS Commission on Standards and Guidelines works with national and international standards-setting organizations and industry representatives to develop voluntary standards and guidelines for security professionals. With funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, the ASIS Commission on Standards is currently promulgating four sets of standards for private security companies.[81]

Cultural references

Films and television

In Marvel Television's The Punisher on Netflix, a PMC by the name of "ANVIL" is heavily featured. ANVIL's founder, Billy Russo, being one of the primary antagonists of the series. Much like real PMCs, ANVIL provides training spaces for U.S. forces on American and foreign soil.[82]

Video games

In Rockstar North's 2013 title Grand Theft Auto V, Merryweather Security, a fictional PMC operating within the US, plays an antagonists role in the main plot.

In the Assassin's Creed game franchise, Abstergo is a multinational corporate conglomerate and private military company founded by the Templar Order in 1937 with Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds to create a destruction of every Assassins Brotherhood throughout the world to make peace with Abstergo Industries had come investigated by the U.S. government with an economic capitalist free market with the Templar organization.

In the series of videogames

Diamond Dogs in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The plot of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance revolves around the protagonist, Raiden
's journey to topple a PMC named Desperado Enforcement LLC and in the process topples another PMC called World Marshall. Raiden himself works for a PMC called Maverick.

In

Escape From Tarkov
, two fictional PMC groups USEC and BEAR appear as opposing factions.

In the Call of Duty series, PMCs appear as factions in the multiplayer mode and in the main campaign storylines, such as the Shadow Company PMC which is an enemy faction both in the original Modern Warfare trilogy and in the rebooted series, and SpecGru and Kortac, two opposing private military contractor factions featured in the multiplayer modes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022 video game) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023 video game). The Atlas Corporation, a PMC described as "a superpower for hire", is a major ally-turned-antagonist in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, in which the protagonist served as an operator until his defection upon learning its CEO, Jonathan Irons, deliberately allowed several global attacks to occur in order to improve Atlas' worldwide reputation.

In Girls' Frontline the main character, the Commander is part of a PMC known as Griffin and Kryuger which operates in Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Balkans.

In Saints Row a PMC known as Marshall Defense Industries is featured as antagonists. The player then becomes one of the board members after a scheme to destroy the stock price and buy it all up. They then fire or shoot Atticus Marshall, the CEO.

See also

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Sources

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External links