What's the current situation with private military contractors?

How many PMCs are deployed currently? (in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, etc)



How many armed contractors are there doing "military" work? (not outsourced civilian services like cooking and construction)



Are all armed PMCs working through the Department of State for security services?



To what extent are military (fighting) roles being transferred to private industry?



Is the growth of PMCs over-exaggerated, understated, or both?



How would you describe the current status of the private military industry today?What's the current situation with private military contractors?about 120,000 private contractors are in Iraq ( thats about half U.S. soldires half contractors)



Blackwater is the main PMF and does work for the Department of state, not sure about other firms



When Bush came in he started hiering PMS's to fight in the middle east, and more and more have been heired after that which has also stunted the special forces because the spec ops soldires are moveing to firms like blackwater to become contractors with x6 the pay.



PMC's are increasing i think but not sure



I honestly understand why they are in the middle east ( to make the death toll of US troops less mostly) but i dont like it since they are somewhat (above the law) and that they dont have our military ethics and standards. But they are highly trained soldiers with spec ops or swat backrounds.What's the current situation with private military contractors?"According to the Congressional Research Service, contractors in 2009 accounted for 48 percent of the D.O.D. work force in Iraq and 57 percent in Afghanistan. And the Pentagon is not the only government agency deploying contractors; the State Department and Usaid make extensive use of them as well. Contractors provide security for key personnel and sites, including our embassies; feed, clothe and house our troops; train army and police units; and even oversee other contractors. Without a multinational contractor force to fill the gap, we would need a draft to execute these twin interventions.”



"They have their own inventory of aircraft, tanks, helicopter gunships, amphibious assault crafts and ammunition stashes that rival the armies of many Third World countries."..."Soldiers enlisted in the US military get paid about $70 a day to put themselves in harm's way while Mr. Prince's private family soldier is paid around $1,500 a day for the same risks."



"Blackwater has reached a level of overgrown and unchecked power that make them capable of overpowering the military of many of the world's governments. Blackwater spokesmen tell us that their mercenaries operate under a pledge of strict loyalty and patriotism. But take time to follow the story about this mercenary group and you will wonder who or what entity actually benefits from that loyalty pledge."





IWhat's the current situation with private military contractors?The State department had at the maximum, 1,500 security contractors working for them in iraq.



As you can see from some of the answers above, to many people confuse PMC's with security contractors. They seem to think all contractors, are security contractors.



They don't realize, that in Iraq, 70% + of all contractors, were Iraqi citizens.



No Security contractor does military work, mercenaries are banned by international law.



Zero percent of military ( fighting ) is done by contractors. They are body guards, who only fight, when the convoy they are guarding is attacked.



PMC's do NOT do combat operations.



The growth, is neither exaggerated or understated, other than the media purposely confusing people into believing that all PMC's are security contractors, when less than about 1% are security contractors.



There were about the same percentage of contractors in the Balkins, vs the number of soldiers deployed, back in the 1990's.



When they US cut the military by 650,000 servicemen in the 1990's, most of those cut, were service and support soldiers, thats why the use of contractors has increased.



It is a decreasing industry, there are far less today, than there were in the early 2000's.



You have to understand, when the US government issued a contract to build or repair, say a hospital in iraq, they issued the contract to say a kuwaiti company, that company hired mainly iraqi's to to the building and repair, under the Kuwaiti companies foremen, They also hired Iraqi's to act as security guards for the construction area.



Well all of those employees, are considered PMC's - even though none actually work for the US. Because the US funded the origional contract to build the hospital.