Age of mercenaries is coming again?

[hellheaven1987]

An interesting article from BBC.

The recent discussions around the G4S Olympic security scandal highlighted two jaw-dropping facts, writes historian Michael Wood.

The first was that Britain still has the fourth largest military budget in the world, behind the USA, China and Russia.

In these days of gloomy introspection about the decline of the UK's military might, it was to say the least, a surprise.

But the second was no less amazing - that the personnel of G4S, a private British security company, is four times larger than the British Army.

Chief executive Nick Buckles has outlined a potential loss of at least £30m on its £284m contract for the Olympics but it soon became apparent that this was a drop in the ocean. The company's revenue in 2011 was about £7.5bn - and is rising.

G4S has a primary listing on London Stock Exchange, a former home secretary as "group consultant", and operations in over 125 countries - not bad for a security firm founded in 2004 and based in Crawley.

This is a company whose previously accident-prone record - as Group 4 Securicor - in running prisons and providing military security, had been criticised in parliament and provoked global protests about its employment practices.

And now the cash-strapped and resource-starved British Army has had to provide thousands of troops for the Olympics to fill the gap left by the failures of a private army.

What interest me is this:

But the second was no less amazing - that the personnel of G4S, a private British security company, is four times larger than the British Army.

You kidding me? A single British PMC has four times more men than British Army can scrap together while still earning £7.5bn one year? Then how about all those other PMCs all around the world? Strange enough, when governments keep reducing military budget they increasing the fund of hiring mercenaries, is regular military force sucked so bad nowadays that they need mercenaries to do their job?

[Thorn777]

Its called "economic growth". Get it in your heads.

[The Last Spartan]

I wouldn't be surprised. Mercenaries are far less politically damaging to one's agenda since they are "privately" funded and owned. Warfare is seeing a transition from open fighting to subterfuge and manipulation. Very soon things like tanks and heavy bombers will be obsolete and drones, spies, and covert operatives will be far larger. Secrecy is a must, because beureacrats set up all these rules that they have to follow, but that in itself is a facade. The rules are constantly being broken with illegal operations being conducted by organizations all over the world on a daily basis.

However, G4S is not a paramilitary organization. I used to work for them, and they are simply a private security firm. Very large, yes they are. They are one of the largest companies in the world (not just in private security). They have armed security, but they're just civilians with pistols. The company acquired a PMC organization called ArmorGroup some time ago, but I'm not sure if they are still active. I quit G4S, because my immediate supervisors were idiots, to put it lightly.

[Adar]

This is what G4S is doing:



The difference between a G4S employee and a cashier is probably smaller than the difference between the regular G4S employee and the military.

[Big War Bird]

This is what G4S is doing:



The difference between a G4S employee and a cashier is probably smaller than the difference between the regular G4S employee and the military.

This.

Mall cop and CC camera installer is a long way from bomber pilot and and missile technician.

[Tiberios]

G4S is no mercenary army. Talk about blowing things out of proportion.

[Condottiere 40K]

It depends on the role they are expected to play.

Security for individual premises and basically courier transport differs from deployment into a combat zone, counter insurency or just plain garrison/area security.

[Krieglord]

So G4S is not the British version of Blackwater then?

[The Last Spartan]

So G4S is not the British version of Blackwater then?

That would be Aegis. But no G4S is far from any mercenary army.

[hellheaven1987]

That would be Aegis. But no G4S is far from any mercenary army.

ArmorGroup still lives happily in G4S, makes G4S a classified PMC.

[Tiberios]

ArmorGroup still lives happily in G4S, makes G4S a classified PMC.

Except for the "tiny" fact, which The Last Spartan pointed out, that ArmorGroup is a very small part of G4S. If ArmorGroup made up the majority of G4S, then I would agree.

[Gatsby]

I dont know if you've ever seen G4S in action Hellhaven, but the vast majority of their work takes place in Tesco, not Afghanistan.

[Col. Tartleton]

Bah, back in America's glory days Pinkerton had a man lurking in every shadow.

Of course if the Unions weren't a bunch of thugs trying to shake down their bosses for more money than they had agreed to work for the industrialists wouldn't have needed to hire muscle to break their knees... Of course ironically nowadays private security is unionized...

So obviously those are the ones you have to watch out for.

[The Last Spartan]

I know. I just said that. They acquired them a couple years ago, I just don't know if they're still operational. But that is a teency weency tiny bit of G4S.

[Farnan]

The vast majority of PMC work that is not in the realm of cooks, mechanics, software technicians, or truck drivers (which in itself probably makes up the largest percentage of PC work) is training, advising, security guard, or body guard work. VERY FEW PMC guys are hollywood style mercenaries.

[Thorn777]

For now Im more troubled by them Danish security cooperations taking over cop-duties in Holland and UK, which includes patrolling the street. Only that their mandate wont allow much when something happens.

And its not like they are cheaper. They are not. Plus they offer less bang for more bucks. Its just another scam on the taxpayer, and allot of highups inbetween see their bank account increasing. Thats the real scandal.

Now wonder why this is. This intent. And when there is such intended behavior where its not suppossed to be, ask why things would not get worse going other directions with such private security firms in "public service"....

Its always a process, not an event. Always.

[Condottiere 40K]

Public servants, if you assume that's what the military and police forces are, owe their ultimate allegiance to the nation; mercenaries and hirelings, to who pays them.

[Simon Cashmere]

It must have been hard for the grunts in Iraq to know that the KBR employee ladelling mash potato onto his plate in the mess earned 4 times what he did and said KBR employee had nobody shooting at them.

Private military contractors HATE being called mercs. Call a PMC a merc and expect to throw down. Blackwater were awesome and distinguished themselves with bravery in a number of important battles. PMCs provide plausible deniability. They are a great catspaw for any govt. Also, PMCs have tremendous govt pull. Ive seen western govts move heaven and earth to save PMCs, on fact Ive never ever seen them work so hard to help a citizen as when a PMC is in trouble - says to me govs see their role as fundamental.

[alexanderswift]

Ive seen western govtd move heaven and eart to save PMCs, on fact Ive never ever seen them work so hard to help a citizen as when a PMC is in trouble - says to me govs see their role as fundamental.

Citizens aren't worth billions of dollars, and they do move heaven and earth for other companies that bring in similar amounts. PMCs are useful for a variety of tasks that the military are not suited/necessary for, the numbers are a bit astonishing but as others have said most of those employees are making deliveries and looking tough in shopping malls.

[Adar]

I understand it as that Hellheaven really want to see signs of the revival of mercenaries, so I'll put in some historical stuff from the West Virginia Coal Wars and the Battle of Blair mountain. There we got some proper private security doing military work.

The Battle of Blair Mountain was one of the largest civil uprisings in United States history and the largest armed rebellion since the American Civil War.[1] For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders,[2]who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired,[3] and the United States Army intervened by presidential order.

Miners displaying one of the bombs dropped by private planes.


At a rally on August 7, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones called on the miners not to march into Logan and Mingo counties and set up the union by force. Accused by some of losing her nerve, she rightly feared a bloodbath in a battle between lightly armed union forces and the more heavily armed deputies from Logan County. Yet, feeling they had been lied to again by West Virginia's Governor Morgan, armed men began gathering at Lens Creek Mountain, near Marmet in Kanawha County on August 20, where four days later up to 13,000 had gathered and began marching towards Logan County. Impatient to get to the fighting, miners near St. Albans, in West Virginia's Kanawha County, commandeered a Chesapeake and Ohio freight train, renamed by the miners as the 'Blue Steel Special', to meet up with the advanced column of marchers at Danville in Boone County on their way to Bloody Mingo. During this time, Keeney and Mooney Fled to Ohio, while the fiery leader Bill Blizzard assumed quasi-leadership of the miners. Meanwhile, the reviled and anti-union Sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin (1887–1954),[34] had begun to set up defenses on Blair Mountain. Chafin was supported financially by the Logan County Coal Operators Association, creating the nation's largest private armed force of nearly 2,000.
The first skirmishes occurred on the morning of August 25. The bulk of the miners were still 15 mi (24 km) away. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army Martin MB-1 bombers. After a long meeting in the town of Madison, the seat of Boone County, agreements were made convincing the miners to return home. However, the struggle was far from over. After spending days to assemble his private army, Chafin was not going to be denied his battle to end union attempts at organizing Logan County coal mines. Within hours of the Madison decision, reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, West Virginia, just north of Blair Mountain—and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many traveling in other stolen and commandeered trains.




By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. A combination of gas and explosive bombs left over from the fighting in World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. At least one did not explode and was recovered by the miners; it was used months later to great effect during treason and murder trials following the battle. On orders from the famous General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used for aerial surveillance, a rare example of air power being used by the federal government against US citizens. One Martin bomber crashed on the return flight, killing the three members of the crew.[35][36] Sporadic gun battles continued for a week, with the miners at one time nearly breaking through to the town of Logan and their target destinations, the non-unionized counties to the south, Logan and Mingo. Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin’s side and 50-100 on the union miners' side, with many hundreds more injured. By September 2, federal troops had arrived. Realizing he would lose a lot of good miners if the battle continued with the military, union leader Bill Blizzard passed the word for the miners to start heading home the following day. Miners fearing jail and confiscation of their guns found clever ways to hide rifles and hand guns in the woods before leaving Logan County. Collectors and researchers to this day are still finding weapons and ammunition embedded in old trees and in rock crevices. Thousands of spent and live cartridges have made it into private collections.

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