A few days ago, Izvestia published a small note that one of the German private security firms (more precisely, to call such organizations private military companies) offered to send its employees to "hot spots", and this caused a big scandal ("The guards are eager to go to war", Izvestia, June 4, 2010). The topic, in my opinion, requires development, since it is by no means a curiosity, but a trend, the consequences of which are difficult to predict.
The first of the currently operating private military companies (PMCs) arose during the Cold War. At the same time, the leadership of the United States, Great Britain, Israel, South Africa directly contributed to their creation. PMCs could be entrusted with the most "dirty" work (such as overthrowing legitimate governments or organizing terrorist groups), and in case of failure, disown them under the pretext that commercial structures were operating.
After the end of the Cold War, the demand for PMC services became even higher, while in connection with the collapse of the armed forces both in the West and in the East, there was an explosive growth in supply: many dismissed servicemen entered the labor market.
By the mid-2000s, the number of PMCs (we are talking about companies that provide military services, and not those involved in logistics) exceeded a hundred, the number of their employees reached 2 million people, the total market capitalization exceeded $ 20 billion, and the volume of services provided amounted to various data, from 60 to 180 billion dollars a year. The most famous and large PMCs are Hulliburton, Blackwater, DynCorp, Logicon, Brown & Root, MPRI, Control Risks, Bechtel, ArmorGroup, Erinys, Sandline International, International Defense and Security. Their services are becoming more and more diversified. They are engaged in demining, guarding important facilities, organizing the delivery of various kinds of goods, developing plans for military construction and the combat use of the armed forces (for example, MPRI trained the Croatian armed forces, which in the fall of 1995 defeated and eliminated Serbian Krajina). In this regard, official international organizations, including the UN, sometimes become employers for PMCs.
The services of PMCs are all the more in demand in a situation where most Western armies are completely unprepared to conduct operations that involve serious losses. But "private traders" do not consider losses. Their losses are not included in the official statistics of countries, which is very convenient from a propaganda point of view. Moreover, the PMCs include citizens of those countries that do not officially participate in the war and even condemn it. For example, a significant number of mercenaries from Germany are fighting in Iraq in the ranks of American and British PMCs, although the German leadership was and remains one of the main opponents of this war. And recently it became known that the German private security company Asgaard German Security Group (about which Izvestia wrote) sent a group of 100 fighters to Somalia, who will fight on the side of the self-proclaimed "President of the Republic of Somalia" Galadid Darman, who has not received international recognition …
Many PMCs seek to recruit foreigners. At the same time, preference is often given to citizens of Eastern Europe and the former USSR, as well as developing countries, since they, with a good level of training, are ready to fight for less money than citizens of Western countries, whose salaries in conflict zones can reach 20 thousand dollars a month …By the way, the maintenance of a mercenary costs about 10 times more than a regular army serviceman.
The fact that the state leadership is not formally responsible either for the losses of PMCs or for the crimes committed by their employees leads to their increasing involvement in wars, along with or instead of regular armies. The high cost fades into the background. So, in Iraq today, more than 400 PMCs are involved, the total number of their personnel exceeds 200 thousand people, i.e. more than in the troops of the United States and its allies. The losses of these structures are at least no less than those of the regular armies, but they are not taken into account in the official statistics. At the same time, PMCs constantly become participants in all sorts of scandals, since their employees behave in relation to the civilian population much more harshly than the "official" military personnel (in Iraq, in this regard, Blackwater is especially "famous").
In addition to "war itself," PMCs are taking on more and more auxiliary functions. These are all types of logistic support (including, for example, cooking food for military personnel and cleaning barracks), engineering support, airfield services, and transport services. Recently, intelligence has become a new area of activity for PMCs (even 10 years ago it was impossible to imagine such a thing). Thus, the development companies of the Predator and Global Hawk drones, which are actively used by the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, are fully engaged in their maintenance and management, including directly in a combat situation. A regular army officer only sets a general task. Other PMCs collect and analyze information about terrorist groups (including via the Internet) and provide the armed forces with translation services from Eastern languages.
And gradually the quantity turned into quality. Recently, the Pentagon discovered that the US armed forces, in principle, cannot function without private companies, even a limited military operation cannot be carried out without them. For example, it turned out that the supply of fuel and lubricants for the grouping of allies in Iraq was 100% privatized. It was once assumed that the attraction of private traders would lead to savings in the military budget. Now it is obvious that the situation is the opposite: their services are much more expensive than if the "state" military did the same work on their own. But, apparently, it's too late. The process has become irreversible.
China can also go along the path of creating PMCs, acting in the interests of the state. At least, this was stated in the sensational book "China is dissatisfied", published a year ago and considered as a description of the plan for the global military expansion of the PRC. Private military companies, named in the book as "overseas security companies", should be an important part of this expansion: “We can say even more clearly: namely, we are talking about the use of demobilized, military personnel who have left the army. there are benefits such as people and organization, and our "offshore safety companies" can restore peace to so many areas of the world where lawlessness and disorder reign. " As you know, China is very actively pursuing economic expansion in Asia and Africa, it would be logical if the Chinese military, who are formally considered "privateers", also come there for engineers and workers.
It is still difficult to assess the consequences of the emerging tendency to "privatize the war". There are suspicions that they may turn out to be very unexpected. And extremely unpleasant.
