Who are mercenaries, and where do PMCs come from? PMCs have been legalized in Russia and recruitment is in full swing

MENSBY

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Protecting ships from pirates, eliminating a cell of a terrorist organization, and larger-scale military operations - all this is the sphere of activity of modern PMCs. As a rule, these guys do not know fear, have serious training and extensive experience in participating in hostilities.

In the unstable geopolitics of the modern world, PMCs have become one of the most popular and effective tools in solving the military problems of many states. Private military companies have proven to be indispensable in special operations where it is not possible to use conventional military personnel.

Protecting ships from pirates, a combat mission to eliminate a cell of a terrorist organization in another country, or even larger-scale military operations - all this is the sphere of activity of modern PMCs. As a rule, these guys do not know fear, have serious training and extensive experience in participating in hostilities.

Many of these organizations have offices around the world, others work with the UN as a security guarantor. Their work is reviewed in a variety of tones, but we will tell you about the 10 most famous PMCs in the world.

№1 Academi (Blackwater)

A country: USA

Number: more than 20,000 mercenaries.

Specialization: support for coups d'etat and established mode in countries where American military personnel are deployed. Many unofficial sources claim that this PMC works with arms smuggling and protects drug trafficking coming from the Middle East.

The most high-profile operations: Iraq, Baghdad, 2007.

In 1997, two Marines decided to create their own security company, ready to take on any job if they pay well for it. This is how one of the most famous PMCs in the world appeared - Blackwater. Murder of civilians, arms smuggling, drug trafficking and coups d'etat - as it turned out, many were willing to pay for the provision of such services, including the governments of entire countries.

It all started in 2002, when Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) received its first major contract from the CIA. Twenty brave thugs arrived in Afghanistan to guard department employees who had announced the hunt for “terrorist #1” - Osama bin Laden.

At the end of the six-month mission, the company had generated $5.4 million in revenue. But the main thing here was not the money, but the connections that the PMC acquired. After all, from then to this day, the main customer of Blackwater has been the American intelligence services. And it was from this moment that Blackwater’s reputation began to acquire notoriety, forcing the company’s management to change its name twice. Today they call themselves Academi.

Blackwater operatives completed their second large order the very next year. In May 2003, they were hired to protect US State Department employees in Iraq. As a result, the thugs hit the jackpot of 21.4 million dollars. But the most interesting thing awaited them ahead.

Blackwater gained worldwide fame on September 16, 2007. In the central square of Baghdad, mercenaries staged a firefight, as a result of which 17 civilians were shot dead and another 18 were seriously injured. A scandal broke out. And although there were children among the victims, the thugs never suffered any serious punishment.

The Iraqi government tried to expel the PMC from the country, but to no avail. The very connections that Blackwater secured in 2002 had an impact. Refusal to extend the contract - this was the official reaction of the customer - the US government.

It subsequently turned out that company employees were involved in 195 shootings from 2005 to 2007. In 84% of cases, the mercenaries did not hesitate to open fire to kill, despite the right to use weapons only for the purpose of self-defense.

№2 G4S (Group 4 Securicor)

A country: Great Britain

Number: more than 500,000 people

Specialization: transportation of valuables and Money, as well as staffing private security services. Security of strategic sites and major international events, such as sports Olympics; escorting prisoners on behalf of the police.

The most high-profile operations: Between 2004 and 2011. absorbed seven of its competitors.

The largest PMC in the world, represented in 125 countries. For comparison, the British army is 180,000 strong. The headquarters is located in London.

G4S officers are hired to provide security at airports and escort prisoners on behalf of the police. The firm's clients include not only corporations, financial institutions and sovereign governments, but also airports, seaports, logistics and transport providers, as well as individuals.

In hot spots, British mercenaries are officially engaged in clearing ammunition, training personnel and guarding railway traffic. In 2011, the company's management signed the UN Global Compact, which is an international standard for promoting business conduct, including labor protection, human rights, anti-corruption and environmental protection.

The loudest victories of Group 4 Securicor occurred not on the battlefields, but, no matter how strange it may sound, in business. Between 2004 and 2011. The PMC absorbed seven of its competitors. It expanded its activities to include not only security activities, but also the production of gadgets and security systems, which are now imported by the company all over the world. Despite the fact that the company positions itself precisely as a PMC, there is no information about the company’s participation in military operations. But it has its own index on the international exchange.

No. 3 MPRI International (Military Professional Resources) Inc.

A country: USA

Number: 3,000 people

Specialization: MPRI International provides training programs for special forces personnel. Assists governments in developing effective information analysis, provides support in conducting research and assessing public opinion.

The most high-profile operations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1994. Preparation of the “Balkan Blitzkrieg”.

“We teach you how to kill professionally.” The company, created by 8 former officers of the US Armed Forces, has become a kind of springboard for training special forces soldiers, providing a wide range of services for governments and armed forces of 40 countries.

But the real profit of the American PMC comes from working in the thick of modern global conflicts. Over the course of their history, MPRI International mercenaries managed to take part in almost all armed conflicts in the Balkans, the Middle East, South America and Africa.

In February 1994, MPRI thugs, on behalf of the US State Department, facilitated the conclusion of an agreement between the Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under pressure from the mercenaries, the leaders of the warring parties were forced to sign an agreement providing for military opposition to the Serbs.

Subsequently, the PMC, consisting of retired American officers, managed in the shortest possible time to train senior military officers of the armies of Croatia and Bosnia, as well as to develop and implement an effective system of operational communications between headquarters and NATO troops, which ultimately affected the successful outcome of the so-called “Balkan blitzkrieg."

After the end of the active phase of the conflict, the company continued to work with the Kosovo Liberation Army, then carried out work with Albanian armed forces in Macedonia in 2000-2001 and government forces in Liberia and Colombia.

And in 2001, at the initiative of the US Department of Defense, MPRI International thugs went to Georgia to reorganize the Georgian Armed Forces according to NATO standards.

#4 Aegis Defense Services

A country: Great Britain

Number: more than 20,000 people

Specialization: security activities in the aerospace, diplomatic and government sectors, as well as in the mining and oil and gas industries. The company also provides armed personnel services to the US government and UN missions.

The most high-profile operations: Iraq, 2005.

Representative offices of this PMC are open in Kenya, Iraq, Nepal, Bahrain, Afghanistan and the USA, and its headquarters are located in Basel.

Officially, the company's employees are engaged in security activities, but in addition to security, the company also provides the services of armed personnel. As often happens, the main customer is the US government. Not without scandals.

In 2005, a video appeared on the Internet showing Aegis Defense Services employees shooting at unarmed Iraqis. And although the company’s management did not admit its involvement in the incident, the Pentagon nevertheless temporarily suspended cooperation with the PMC.

Now the PMC is fulfilling another contract from the American authorities in the amount of $497 million, which provides for ensuring security in Iraq and protecting the US government in Kabul.

No. 5 PMC RSB-Group (Russian Security Systems)

A country: Russia

Number: the main core is about 500 people. Depending on the scale of the operation, the number of employees can increase to several thousand by attracting hired specialists.

Specialization: conducting security operations both on land and at sea. The company produces professional competitive intelligence and provides military consulting services. The RSB group also has its own training center, where training seminars are held for military specialists.

The most high-profile operations: Gulf of Aden, 2014.

RSB-Group is today the main Russian private military company. According to some reports, the number of employees is about 500 people, but for large operations the organization’s staff can reach several thousand. It is considered the most qualified and effective organization in the security sector of the Russian market.

Officially, the PMC operates in areas with an unstable political situation. RSB-Group mainly conducts operations in the Middle East.

The creators are professional military personnel, reserve officers of the GRU and FSB, who have been through more than one hot spot and have the highest level of team interaction.

The headquarters of RSB-Group is located in Moscow. Representative offices are opened in Sri Lanka, Turkey, Germany and Cyprus. In addition, there is an office in Senegal that oversees West Africa and the Middle East, in which this PMC specializes and where it conducts large-scale operations.

At the international level, RSB-Group positions itself as a Russian private military company. The range of services offered includes security of oil and gas facilities and airports, escort of convoys in conflict zones and cargo ships in pirate-prone maritime areas, as well as mine clearance, military training, intelligence and analysis.

According to Oleg Krinitsyn, director of RSB Group, PMC employees have been providing services abroad since 2011.

“RSB has security companies with weapons licenses registered outside of Russia. And Russian RSS employees work abroad in accordance with the laws and requirements of the state where our security groups are located. We use semi-automatic weapons of 7.62 mm, 5.56 mm caliber, body armor, thermal imagers, night vision devices, satellite communications, and if necessary, we can use UAVs,” Krinitsyn said in an interview with Kommersant.

He also said that the first foreign operation of the RSB Group was to protect ships in the Gulf of Aden from Somali pirates. It is noteworthy that the PMC built its own tactics to protect ships, thanks to which the pirates simply changed course, abandoned military clashes and even in rare cases welcomed the well-armed military from the RSB on the ship they were guarding. Thus, PMCs manage to carry out security at sea almost bloodlessly.

№6 Erinys International

A country: Great Britain

Number: unknown

Specialization: The activities of PMCs are focused on providing security services, in particular, in areas of Central Africa with very difficult natural conditions.

The most high-profile operations: Iraq, 2003.

A British military company registered offshore in the British Virgin Islands. It has a number of subsidiaries in the UK, the Republic of Congo, Cyprus and South Africa.

"Major US Support in Iraq." Since 2003, Erinys has provided comprehensive support to the US government in military operations in Iraq.

PMC employees are former employees of British intelligence agencies and special forces.

The largest operation in recent years is the deployment of 16 thousand security guards in Iraq in 282 locations throughout the country. A huge contingent ensured the safety of pipelines and other energy infrastructure nodes.

In 2004, she found herself at the center of a scandal when information about abuse of prisoners appeared in the press. According to journalists, mercenaries violated the human rights convention by using brutal torture against a 16-year-old Iraqi resident during a military investigation.

The company currently works closely with oil and gas corporations, extractive industries, non-governmental organizations and public services. The services are also readily used by the American and British governments, and even the UN.

No. 7 Northbridge Services Group

A country: Dominican Republic

Number: Varies depending on tasks

Specialization: providing security consulting and training, operational and intelligence support, and providing strategic communications. PMCs also provide assistance in the field of maritime security and the protection of natural resources.

The most high-profile operations: Liberia, 2003.

"Every whim for your money". The main customers of this PMC are transnational companies and conglomerates that are generous in payment various kinds tasks to protect your own business in different parts of the world.

Northbridge Services Group is registered in the Dominican Republic. Offices are open in the USA, UK and Ukraine.

The company "provides an effective service designed to meet the needs of governments, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations, the corporate sector and individuals."

Northbridge mercenaries assist law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime and unauthorized search of information, provide assistance in the field of maritime security and the protection of natural resources.

The volume of financial receipts in 2012 amounted to 50.5 million dollars

She gained worldwide fame in 2003 when she offered the UN Tribunal to capture Liberian President Charles Taylor for $2 million. But the proposal was rejected as illegal.

The PMC played an important role in resolving the armed conflict in this country. Northbridge Services Group took the side of the rebels, thereby ensuring the overthrow of the official government of the country and the further entry of UN peacekeepers into its territory.

No. 8 DynCorp

A country: USA

Number: about 14 thousand people.

Specialization: the widest range of security and defense services in the air, on land and on water. In addition, the company is a developer of security systems and a provider of solutions within military combat strategies.

The most high-profile operations: Afghanistan, 2002.

PMC DynCorp appeared back in 1946. The corporate headquarters is located in Virginia, but all operational management is carried out from an office in Texas. DynCorp receives more than 65% of its revenue from the US government.

The oldest PMC in the world provides services to the US military in several theaters of operations, including Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait. DynCorp provides physical protection services to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and trains much of the Iraqi and Afghan police forces.

According to some experts, the company is closely connected with the CIA and dubious transactions could be carried out under its cover.

There are several major scandals in the history of the corporation.

Iraqi authorities accused the company and the US State Department of misusing $1.2 billion aimed at training law enforcement units.

In October 2007, a company employee killed a taxi driver in Baghdad, and in July 2010, DynCorp employees shot and killed four Afghan civilians near Kabul airport.

No. 9 ITT Corporation

A country: USA

Number: about 9,000 employees.

Specialization: high-tech engineering development and production of defense technologies.

The most high-profile operations: Latin America and South America 1964.

PMC appeared as one of the divisions of the ITT Corporation. The organization itself began in the 1920s as an international telephone and telegraph company. After division into areas, it became one of the main contractors for US government orders in the defense industry.

ITT Corporation is considered one of the largest companies engaged in high-tech engineering development, as well as the production and implementation of defense technologies.

She became famous for her direct participation in the overthrow of Latin American regimes, in the Brazilian coup in 1964, when the governments of the countries tried to nationalize American companies, as well as for financing the group that brought Pinochet to power in 1973.

In March 2007, ITT Corporation was fined $100 million by the US Department of Justice for sharing information about night vision devices and counter-laser weapons technology with Singapore, China and the UK.

No. 10 Asgaard German Security Group

A country: Germany

Number: unknown

Specialization: planning operations and support in risk areas, security, consulting, training and advanced training, conducting seminars.

The most high-profile operations: Somalia 2010.

One of the most famous German PMCs. Founded in 2007 by a former high-ranking German paratrooper named Thomas Kaltegärtner. The number of employees remains unknown to this day. It has representative offices in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Chad, Croatia and the United Arab Emirates.

It is noteworthy that the German Foreign Ministry made an official statement that it has no control over the activities of this PMC and does not know anything about its activities in Somalia.

The PMC is known for having concluded one of the most resonant contracts with the Somali oppositionist Galadid Abdinur Ahmad Darman, who declared himself president of the republic back in 2003. In 2009, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed became interim president, and Galadid decided to strengthen his position with the help of German mercenaries.

The legality and official recognition of the activities of private military companies is a fairly popular topic today. This is especially true for Russia, where this phenomenon has just begun to appear, in contrast to the West and Europe, where PMCs have been operating for a long time. The effectiveness of such companies in hot spots has already been proven; the only question is whether they will be officially recognized by the state or not.

The President of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha anti-terrorism unit, Sergei Goncharov, said that the State Duma could speed up the decision on the adoption of a law on private military companies.

“To be frank, such a law on private military companies, as far as I understand, has not yet been adopted in Russia. Although this topic has been raised many times, because our “main opponents” - the USA, Great Britain and France - have private companies that are active throughout the globe. They do quite serious work, which brings dividends to these countries,” Goncharov noted.

At the moment, the issue of control over the activities of PMCs is in a “stagnant” state. According to Sergei Goncharov, it needs to be addressed to the State Duma, which could introduce a corresponding bill.

And why the world's leading countries are abandoning the state army in favor of independent professionals.

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Employees of the military company Blackwater. AP Photo

About 50 years have passed since the emergence of the first private military company, and during this time firms have grown from small budgets and small staff to giant empires earning up to 300 billion dollars a year. They supply states and wealthy firms with military consultants, engineers, technicians, security guards, bodyguards and, in extreme cases, professional special forces soldiers for fire support.

Since the 2000s, almost all the leading countries of the world have used this service, and, as the experience of modern wars shows, it is increasingly more profitable for states to pay mercenary soldiers than to declare mobilization and risk angering citizens.

Reasons for popularity

When the outbreak began in Yemen in 1962 Civil War, World War II veteran and British national David Stirling saw an opportunity for himself and his colleagues. By then he was already known as the founder of Britain's Special Landing Service (SAS) and was considered a well-connected professional soldier. Together with his colleagues, he was the first private military company (PMC) Watchguard International, which became a support for Great Britain during the war in Yemen.

The company offered to train soldiers, deliver provisions, and provide rear protection. In other words, engage in all military spheres except direct participation in hostilities. The British authorities liked the idea, and although the results of the war were ambiguous, Watchguard International did its job.

The company's services were mainly used by Great Britain's allies, including the United States. Many prisons for the Vietnamese and logistics support during the Vietnam War by PMCs. Construction, air transportation, creation of rear infrastructure - these services became the most profitable for military companies in the first years after their appearance. Thanks to Stirling's success, his colleagues began to open similar PMCs. They were mainly involved in hostage taking or counseling.

During South Africa's poaching boom in the 1980s, the country's authorities used Watchguard International to battle animal killers. At that time, PMCs were new to many countries, and therefore their activities were treated with loyalty. Even the International Wildlife Federation signed an agreement to kill poachers.

US soldiers in Iraq. Photo by Reuters

However, to develop, private military companies did not require loyalty, but wars. That is why in the 1990s, when the Cold War ended with the fall of the USSR, the era of PMCs began.

During the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, each country had dozens of bases in different countries. The Balkans, the Baltic States, Africa, the Middle East, Asia - each of the two superpowers kept its troops in the countries of these regions.

They controlled stability and did not allow radical movements to become active. With the end of the Cold War, Russia, emerging from the ruins of the Soviet Union, abandoned many of its bases around the world, including in unstable Africa. While triumphant, the US also loosened its military grip.

The authorities of both countries saved money on this decision. But for states in which the USSR and the USA artificially maintained peace for many years, the decision of the superpowers caused serious damage. The authorities of countries that have lost strong allies have turned to the services of PMCs to ensure stability in the state.

The wars in the Persian Gulf, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Yugoslavia, and Chechnya occurred immediately after the end of the Cold War and the weakening of the military grip of the United States and the Soviet Union.

By 2002, private military companies were in 42 countries and had taken part in 700 armed conflicts. During the Gulf War, 65% of all troop and cargo movements were carried out by military companies. All logistical support for the Saudi National Guard was provided by mercenaries. They went into battle with specialists from military companies. The success of PMCs in war led to their popularity in Saudi Arabia.

Even then, competition among firms was high. Often, the failure of even one operation led to the termination of the contract with the PMC, because the state could always find a similar company.

In the 1990s, the British military company GSG operated during Sierra Leone's civil war with rebels. In the first battle, the detachment suffered heavy losses, and the commander was killed and ritually eaten by the rebels. After this, the contract with GSG was terminated.

The contract was intercepted by the British company SI and later found itself at the center of a scandal. It turned out that the company supplied 35 tons of weapons to Sierra Leone from Bulgaria in defiance of the international embargo. During the investigation, it became known that this was done at the instigation of the British High Commission in Sierra Leone and the US State Department.

Blackwater employees, 2004. Photo by Harvard Blog

In 1995, when the war in Yugoslavia ended, international human rights organizations and the UN paid military companies more than a billion dollars for demining the country. The USA, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Great Britain and France invested money in the operation.

Such great demand accelerated the already rapid growth of military companies. Dozens of soldiers served in the army and went to private companies, where their professional and extensive military experience was valued much more highly. This trend was beneficial to both sides.

It is much cheaper for the government of Western democracies to hire a private company than to launch a military mobilization and convince, for example, Congress to approve the use of regular troops.

PMC soldiers, unlike army soldiers, consist exclusively of professionals with experience in special forces. Since these are private individuals, they are not paid benefits, pensions or insurance. The losses of military specialists from private companies are not included in the statistics and do not create such a resonance as the mortality rate in the regular troops.

Work principles

After several major PMC scandals during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, PMC workers are increasingly associated with brutal mercenaries. However, private military companies are a much larger phenomenon than a company that produces people fighting for money.

Large PMCs are entire business structures with branches, offices, office workers and accountants, often controlled by the government. Companies work only with recognized states or wealthy diamond, gas or oil companies.

This is not snobbery, it’s just that the average American company can hardly afford to hire professional soldiers. In US companies, on average, military specialists pay from $200 to $1,000 for one day of work if they are close to the combat zone.

For the protection of industrial facilities, American PMCs pay from 600 to 6 thousand dollars a month. The salary depends on the location of the security post and the citizenship of the soldier. The initial equipment costs employers about a thousand dollars. For comparison, privates and sergeants of the US Army receive up to four thousand dollars a month.

An employee of the private military company Blackwater at a shooting range. Associated Press photo

In modern society, the price of human life is becoming increasingly higher. At least, a similar trend is typical for Western countries. The majority of US and European citizens no longer want to fight. Moreover, the Western voter has an extremely negative perception of the use of national armed forces in various conflicts, usually taking place many thousands of kilometers from his home.

However, despite this civil pacifism, the world has not become safer and wars have not stopped. Both the United States and European countries have to defend their national interests with the help of armed force in different parts of the world. The best way to resolve this contradiction is to use mercenaries.

A mercenary is a person who participates in an armed conflict not because of his political, ideological or national considerations, but in exchange for dangerous military work. material benefit. Often, mercenaries are not citizens of the country on whose territory the armed conflict is taking place, although different options are possible. The mercenary does not take an oath, the political aspects of the conflict are not important to him, he is only interested in money.

Mercenaries are, of course, not a modern invention. But if earlier soldiers, as a rule, were hired by states or representatives of the nobility, today the services of mercenaries are offered by commercial structures. These are private military companies (PMCs).

A similar business appeared around the 60s of the last century, but private military companies have become a mass phenomenon over the past few decades. PMCs offer security or defense services, and increasingly they are directly involved in hostilities. In recent years, information has appeared in the media about the creation of similar structures in Russia.

Currently, the global trend is that private military companies are gradually ousting regular troops from the battlefield.

History of the emergence and development of PMCs

The practice of attracting various specialists, advisers, and instructors on a contract basis has a long history. However, the first PMC in our usual form was created in 1967 in England. The founder of the company was Colonel of Her Majesty's Army David Sterling. Previously, this extraordinary man created the famous British SAS - one of the best special units in the world. The first PMC was called Watchguard International, the main direction of its activity was the preparation of various security organizations in the countries of the Middle East and Africa.

In the mid-70s, the private military company Vinnell Corp, owned by the American industrial giant Northrop Grumman, received its first major contracts from the US government. Their amount exceeded half a billion dollars. PMC employees were supposed to train the National Guard of Saudi Arabia and carry out some security tasks in the territory of this country.

Many mercenaries from various PMCs took part in the fighting in Angola. It should be noted that foreign mercenaries are not always used as front-line infantry. These can be signalmen, staff officers, technicians, operators of complex weapons systems and many other specialists, without whom no modern army can do.

The number of private military companies grew rapidly; their services were used not only by the governments of various states, but also by large businesses. Even the UN became interested in this problem. In 1979, a special resolution was adopted on this matter and a committee was organized, which, however, was of little use.

The situation changed seriously after the end of the Cold War. In the United States, defense spending was sharply reduced, many projects were closed, and the size of the American armed forces was reduced. It was at this moment that the US military leadership came up with the idea of ​​​​more actively attracting mercenary companies. At first they were engaged in supporting the armed forces (logistics, equipment repair, supplies), but then PMCs began to be attracted to perform more serious tasks.

During the invasion of Iraq in 1991, the number of mercenaries from various PMCs accounted for 1% of the total number of American troops in the Persian Gulf. And that was just the beginning.

Private mercenary armies took part in various military conflicts in Africa in the 90s; the American PMC MPRI trained the Croatian army during the war in Yugoslavia. However, the rise of private military companies began after the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, the number of mercenaries located in these countries exceeds the number of American military personnel.

Western PMCs were training the Georgian army before 2008, American and French military companies resisted pirates in Somalia, mercenaries from various PMCs took part in the civil war in Libya.

And this is not a complete list of conflicts in recent decades in which private hired companies have been seen. Today, 450 private military companies are officially registered in the world, and the list of their services is very wide.

The most famous Western PMCs are: Academi (formerly Blackwater), Kellog, Brown and Root (USA), Groupe-EHC (France), Erinys (USA), DynCorp (USA).

What are PMCs used for?

Modern private military companies are hired to perform a variety of tasks. The most common of them is military consulting. That is, they train soldiers of law enforcement units, improve the level of officers and technical personnel, and conduct strategic planning.

The second area of ​​activity of the PMC is logistics. “Private traders” are engaged in providing regular troops participating in hostilities. Moreover, the concept of “security” is interpreted very broadly. This could be the repair of military equipment, the usual supply of advanced units, or the maintenance of army computer systems.

Very often, PMCs are involved in the protection of various objects. A classic example is the oil fields and pipelines in Iraq. PMCs have been doing this work for a long time. In recent years, private military companies have been actively offering mine clearance services.

In connection with the development of piracy in some areas of the World Ocean, a new area of ​​activity has emerged for PMCs: escorting ships and fighting modern filibusters. This issue is especially relevant for the Gulf of Aden. It is much more profitable for shipowners to hire a PMC than to pay a ransom for a ship. By the way, mercenaries are most often involved in the ransom and release of captured sailors.

The direct participation of mercenaries in hostilities has become a trend in recent years. PMCs, “tailored” specifically for war, are being created in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Russia.

Today in Russia there are more and more voices calling for changes to legislation that would allow the creation and use of PMCs on a legal basis. In our country, a huge number of people have military experience, and the low level of well-being will allow serious savings on the salaries of Russian “soldiers of fortune.” Whether the current leadership of the country needs this is a controversial issue that deserves a separate article.

Private military companies in Russia

What is the situation with private hired companies in Russia? Officially, we do not have mercenaries; moreover, such activities are punishable by law (Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). A person participating in an armed conflict for money can receive from three to seven years in prison in Russia.

Mercenaries arose on a serious scale in Russia immediately after the collapse of the USSR. The country was experiencing a reduction in its huge armed forces, tens of thousands of excellent military specialists found themselves on the margins of life, and many of them had real combat experience. Therefore, it is not surprising that Russian-speaking military personnel began to appear in various corners globe. Today there are several Russian mercenary military organizations that provide various types of rather specific services.

Such companies are usually staffed by retired military personnel, veterans of special units, often with experience of more than one conflict. The official status of such structures in Russia has not yet been determined; according to Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the organization of illegal armed groups is a crime. Here is a list of the most frequently mentioned Russian PMCs: E.N.O.T. CORP, Wagner PMC, Cossacks, Tiger Top-Rent Security, Moran Security Group, MAR PMC.

These structures deal with the most different types activities: provide security services, escort cargo, train military personnel, fight pirates and directly participate in hostilities.

In recent years, information about the active activities of domestic PMCs has increasingly become public. Currently, Russia is involved in two conflicts in which it has to use PMCs especially actively. We are talking about Syria and Ukraine.

At the beginning of spring, journalists from St. Petersburg Fontanka conducted a brilliant investigation into the activities of Russian private military companies. They came to the attention of the Wagner PMC, whose fighters have been participating in hostilities in eastern Ukraine and Syria for a long time.

Formally this private army does not exist, it is not on the lists of law enforcement agencies or in the registers legal entities. However, despite this, Wagner PMC has armored vehicles and heavy infantry weapons. The unit has been involved in the Syrian conflict since 2013, it was involved during the return of Crimea, and then transferred to the territory of the Luhansk region.

Wagner PMC got its name from the call sign used by its commander, Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces soldier and a big fan of the attributes and ideology of the Third Reich. The unit is staffed by former military personnel, special forces personnel, and veterans of law enforcement agencies.

For the authorities, the existence of structures like Wagner PMCs is very convenient. Officially, Russia is not fighting in the Donbass; participation in ground military operations in Syria is also not advertised. The fighters of the Wagner PMC are not taken into account anywhere; official structures do not recognize them, which, however, does not prevent the mercenaries from being awarded military orders and medals. Most often posthumously.

Naturally, the losses of private military companies are not included in the lists of the Ministry of Defense. The mercenaries themselves avoid communicating with the press and generally do not want publicity, since everyone “goes under the radar.”

Journalists dug up information about dozens of dead Wagnerites, most of whom were killed in Donbass

A feature of Wagner PMC is the very high percent losses, which is usually not typical for private military companies. Such structures, as a rule, recruit professionals, and they very rarely engage in frontal attacks. However, at Wagner PMC everything is “a little” different.

Both in the Donbass and in Syria, Wagnerites work in the most dangerous points, they often go as part of the first wave of attackers, storming populated areas and enemy positions. PMC management pays virtually no attention to training military personnel. The fighters complain that to completely repeat the Soviet tactics of World War II, they only need “bayonets on AKs.”

Despite the high percentage of casualties, there are more than enough people willing to serve under Wagner's command. The reason for this is very simple - money. A mercenary receives about 240 thousand rubles a month - very good money for the Russian outback.

Current PMC situation

The number of private military companies in the world is growing at a rapid pace. Their use in conflicts is reaching unprecedented proportions. The Americans simply cannot name the exact number of mercenaries who are present in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2018, in Afghanistan, for every American regular soldier (9.8 thousand in total), there are three mercenaries (28.6 thousand). The situation is similar in Iraq: 4,087 military personnel and 7,773 soldiers from private military companies. These figures are most likely not final, since the American defense department does not keep accurate records of PMCs.

By the way, the Russian PMC Lukoil-A also operates in Iraq. This company is a division of the oil giant; it was created by Vympel veterans in the mid-90s. Legally, this is a private security company, but in Iraq, Lukoil-A performs the typical tasks of a private military company (protection of fields and oil pipelines, cargo delivery, escort of convoys).

To this number should be added the contract soldiers hired by the CIA and other American intelligence organizations.

Mercenaries die much more often than regular soldiers, and the Pentagon seems to be absolutely happy with this situation. The Americans have a rather strict system for recording losses; they have a special website where you can find data on all US operations outside the country. The information is constantly updated, combat and non-combat losses are described separately. Of course, mercenaries are not included in these statistics. Moreover, PMCs often do not inform the military about the death of their people. Their relatives are simply paid insurance; a significant part of the mercenaries are not even citizens of the United States.

Why do governments of different countries prefer to work with PMCs? This is often more profitable than sending troops into a certain territory, creating garrisons there, and dealing with logistics. Private military companies are distinguished by a high level of professionalism; they usually effectively solve the tasks for which they receive money. PMCs are distinguished by high efficiency, they have a minimum of bureaucracy, and more flexible management.

But the main thing is different: using PMCs, a state can not advertise its participation in an armed conflict at all or minimize its extent. All the dirty work, which is enough in any war, can be transferred to mercenaries.

The use of national armed forces often carries significant political risks for the authorities both within the country and abroad. It is much more profitable for the losses to be borne by mercenaries (“ichtamnets”) from de jure non-existent companies that will not spoil official statistics.

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July 23rd, 2017

In general, the theme of specialist mercenaries, and even more so of an entire shadow “army” that is not essentially an official armed force for many, most likely seems to exist in the world of cinema and fiction.

However, everything is more real and down to earth. This is the story of the world's largest mercenary army...

The dizzying growth of the largest mercenary army began not in hot spots like Afghanistan or Iraq, but in a sleepy little American town called Holland in Michigan, where the founder of modern mercenaryism, Erik Prince, was born into a right-wing Christian family.

It was the Prince family that laid the foundations that would in the future help Blackwater (BW) rise to the unattainable heights of the international mercenary market.

This beautiful two-story home on South Shore Drive is ideally located on the waters of picturesque Lake Macatawa. The sun shines brightly in its clear water. On both sides of the road old spreading maples rustle peacefully. An American flag flutters quietly above the house. A calm picture occasional noise disturbance motor boats or randomly passing cars. Real America, straight from the postcard.

In little Holland, the Prince family was akin to European royalty, and Edgar Prince, Eric's father, was king. A quarter of the entire city worked for the self-taught manufacturer Edgar. He reshaped its institutions, planned and sponsored downtown development, and was one of the patrons of two local colleges.

If there was one lesson that Edgar passed on to his children, it was the understanding of how to build and run an empire while adhering to strict Christian dogmas, right-wing views, and the fundamentals of a market economy.

By 1973, the Prince Corporation was doing better than ever. Employing hundreds of people across multiple divisions, the company launched its flagship product, a car sun visor patented by Edgar himself.

18-hour workdays took a toll on the father of the family’s health—he suffered a stroke at the age of 40. Finding himself in the hospital, as usually happens, Edgar decided to completely devote himself to serving Jesus Christ.

However, this did not in any way affect his business acumen - the Prince Corporation soon began producing many other car accessories that were very popular.

As Eric later said about his father, he “founded a company from scratch that began producing casting machines high pressure, and has since grown into a world-class supplier of auto accessories.”

In the 1980s, the Prince family became close to one of the most influential conservative families in the United States when Eric's sister, Betsy, married Dick DeVos. By the way, her father was the founder of the Amway corporation, which generously sponsored, naturally, candidates from the Republican Party.

Eric's father died from repeated heart attack, when he was 63 years old. A few minutes before his death, he spoke with the president of the Prince Corporation, then said goodbye and entered the elevator, where he was found 15 minutes later.

As happens when a king dies, the town of Holland fell into deep mourning. Local residents even lowered their flags.

At this time, Eric served as a Navy SEAL and had already visited Bosnia, Haiti and the Middle East.

Note translator: despite the rather stupid name, “fur seals” (orUnited StatesNavy’ s S e a, A ir, L and Teams — SEAL) is the elite force of the United States Navy. I won't go into detail, but these guys go through exhausting satanic training. About the final exam to join the ranksSEALentitledHell Weekeven made several films. So we can safely say that Eric was a strong and resilient young man. For those interested in cats, we recommend this book worldwidefamous sniper Chris Kyle,American Sniper.

Eric admired his father and dreamed of following in his footsteps since childhood. His deep religiosity was no exception—his writings in high school full of quotes from the Bible. After high school, he entered the Naval Academy, dreaming of becoming a pilot on an aircraft carrier, but after three semesters he dropped out to study at Hillsdale College, which preached libertarian economics. While in school, Eric was a volunteer firefighter and diver for the county sheriff. A 2006 Princeton Review poll ranked the college as the most conservative in the country.

Growing up, Eric began to take an active interest in right-wing politics, entering an internship at The White house to George Bush Sr. It was during this practice that he made his first political donation ($15 thousand) to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Erik Prince (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Eric supported politicians such as Jesse Helms (racist senator and admirer of the Confederate States of America), Ollie North (Iran arms scandal), Richard Pombo (connections with the “black” lobbyist Jack Abramoff), Dick Chrysler (founder of Cars and Concepts), Tom Coburn (senator and deacon of the Southern Baptist Church with all that it entails), Tom DeLay (unclear connections with the same black lobbyist Abramov and a number of Russian oligarchs) and many others. At least Eric can be praised for the consistency of his views.

In 1992, he turned his attention to the campaign of renegade Republican Pat Buchanan, who was trying to wrest the Republican nomination from President Bush with his ultra-conservative anti-immigrant, anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage agenda. Because of this, Eric had a big fight with his sister, who was working for Bush at the time. However, their quarrel ended as quickly as Eric's fascination with the Buchanan campaign - he returned to the ranks of the SEALs, joining SEAL Team 8 after officer candidate school. It was during the period from 92 to 96 with the SEALs that Eric met many of those who would become his assistants in the founding of BW.

In the first months after the death of patriarch Edgar Prince, no one knew what would happen to his legacy - the Prince Corporation. More than 4,000 employees depended on how Edgar himself saw the future of the company. Now this burden has fallen to all family members - his wife, Elsa, has become chairman of the board of directors; Eric, having broken with the service, took up the daily affairs of the company. His wife, Joan Nicole, had just received terrible diagnosis- cancer in terminal stage. Life in fabulous Holland began to turn into hell.

In 1996, a year after Edgar's death, the family sold the business for $1.35 billion to Johnson Controls under the promise to retain the Prince Corporation brand, all employees and social package. True, how often does this happen in the world of big business and big money, Johnson Controls did not keep its promise, buried the brand, and fired some of the employees, dissolving the company.

At this time, Eric, following in his father's footsteps in his religiosity, came to the point of accepting Catholicism. Taking Edgar's example of giving to right-wing Protestants, he began donating money to right-wing Catholics like Catholic Answers, which opposed abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research and cloning.

At the same time, the Prince family was a member of the Council for National Policy. The New York Times described the council as "a private club of several hundred of the country's most influential conservatives who meet behind closed doors three times a year to discuss how to move the country to the right."

That this council was not a bunch of crazy villagers dreaming of world domination is evidenced by the fact that George W. Bush turned to them for support in the 1999 presidential race. Their meetings were also attended by Dick Cheney (Vice President) and Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense).

B.W.: START

While Eric was the printing press for the fledgling company's financing, almost every detail of his venture was developed by Al Clark, who served as a SEAL firearms instructor for 11 years. In a 1993 interview, when Prince was just beginning his military career, Clark claimed that he had already outlined the shape of the future company.

The main problem at that time was the lack of training grounds for the Navy, which includes a SEAL unit. They always had to be rented from the Marines or the Army.

In 1996, Clark was transferred to SEAL Team 8 as a tactics instructor. Prince, then promoted to lieutenant, was in the first platoon that Clark trained.

Only a few months later did Clark learn that Erik Prince belongs to the same Prince family. However, the dreams of founding the company were not destined to come true - as you remember, the father of the family died in 1995, and Eric’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. There was no time for business at all.

In a 2006 interview, Eric said that “in the 90s, many specialists had similar thoughts about the need to build private training grounds.”

When his father passed away in 1995, Prince still considered staying in the SEALs, but after his wife's health deteriorated, he dropped everything, quit the service and returned home to support his family and four children.

In 2006, Prince said: “Many special forces soldiers I knew shared my thoughts about the need for advanced private training facilities. Some of them joined me when I first started BW. After sale family business I sponsored my company myself"

Prince claimed that the idea for BW came to him while serving in SEAL Team 8: “I trained all over the world and realized how difficult it is for special forces to undergo modern combat training.”

However, some former high-ranking BW employees claimed that the idea was actually Al Clark's: "Al came up with the idea from start to finish, Eric provided the financing."

BW appeared just during the privatization boom in the Department of Defense, which took place from 1989 to 1993 under the leadership of Dick Cheney and George H.W. In his first year in office, Cheney cut the defense budget by $10 billion. He stopped funding research and development (R&D) for a number of complex weapons systems, and also reduced the number of military personnel from 2.2 million to 1. 6 million. As Dan Briody wrote in his book The Halliburton Agenda: “In the early 1990s, the Army had little dependence on private companies, and Cheney was determined to change the status quo. The idea was to let the army fight, and outsource all rear logistics to private companies. In addition, it was a very good way to calm the wave of discontent in society after the next deployment of troops abroad. More “private traders” means fewer regular troops, and less discontent.”

By the time Erik Prince and Al Clark began creating BW in the mid-90s, the Defense Department was undergoing massive layoffs. Training bases, one of the most important components of the military machine, also came under attack. The first president of BW then said: “There is now a great demand for high-quality training for military personnel and special forces soldiers, because most of the bases were built during the Second World War and are hopelessly outdated. Nobody could provide them with modern training grounds.” It was this niche that BW filled in 1996.

At this time, the Republican Party was going through difficult times. Clinton's victory in '92 marked the end of twelve golden years of conservative rule that had been laid by the Reagan administration. Right-wing religious organizations, with which Prince was very sympathetic, considered the Clinton administration "a leftist regime that supports abortion, pro-homosexuals, and opposes family values ​​and religion in the country."

It was in this unfavorable environment that BW emerged. On December 26, 1996, 3 months after leaving the SEAL service, Eric registered the Blackwater Lodge & Training Center. IN next year he bought almost 2,000 hectares of land in North Carolina. The new brainchild of a worthy representative of the Prince family will now be located near a place with the interesting name Great Dismal Swamp.

BW may have later become a megalodon shark in the mercenary market, but in the early days the company was desperately trying to convince the city planning committee of Currituck County, population 20,000, that BW could open a business here. Before September 11, the committee members were not worried about global terrorism, Islamic radicalism and other horror stories. They were concerned about the price of real estate, acceptable noise levels and the ability to protect themselves from crowds of fans of shooting at live targets. They had something to worry about - a year earlier, a stray bullet from a local hunter hit the building primary school during lessons.

In the end, Currituck County turned them down, so Prince went to neighboring Camden County, where he received quick approval for his project.

The first work began in June 1997, and the company officially opened in May 1998. Although the name Blackwater sounds creepy, it refers to dark waters The Great Swamp, near which the BW base was built. Soon after opening, both former and current SEALs began flocking to BW, followed by FBI personnel. Everything was simple - new training grounds, great training opportunities and a short distance from the place of work (the FBI headquarters in Washington is 350 km, and one of the SEAL bases is 60 km).

By 1998, BW was doing well - the company trained private and government clients in the use of various types of firearms (from pistols to assault rifles and machine guns). Some training grounds were rented out to SEALs for training. Police officers from Virginia, North Carolina and even Canada trained at BW. The company received questions from foreign countries: the Spanish government was interested in training specialists to protect presidential candidates, the Brazilian authorities were interested in training on counter-terrorism operations. One BW client wrote in the Virginian Plot in 1998: “They are the best of the best... it is a great honor to come here and learn from the best.”

By the end of 1998, the BW base included several conference rooms, classrooms, recreation rooms with fireplaces and stuffed animals, a store, a cafeteria, an armory, a separate room for cleaning weapons and spacious rooms with satellite TV for guests - a paradise for everyone gun lovers, even by modern standards. In the same year, BW held a shooting competition on its territory among law enforcement agencies and military units, later nicknamed “Shoot-out at BW”.

Blackwater played a significant role in the Iraq War as a contractor for the United States government. In 2003, the first contract was signed to provide security to the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Paul Bremer, in the amount of $21 million. According to Erik Prince, 30 company employees have been killed since 2003. Total losses Blackwater in Iraq amounted to about 780 people, these people are not counted in official statistics of military losses.

While operating in Iraq, Blackwater was repeatedly suspected of arms smuggling. A major scandal that occurred with a security company on March 9, 2010 was the investigation into the disappearance of more than 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles and other weapons from American warehouses in Afghanistan. Presumably, the Blackwater employee responsible for the loss of weapons signed invoices for their removal from the warehouse with the name of the South Park cartoon character Eric Cartman.

On September 16, 2010, five members of Xe's management, including chief executive Gary Jackson, were indicted on gun trafficking charges. The officials falsified documents and thus concealed their gift to King Abdullah II of Jordan in the form of 22 weapons, including 17 AK assault rifles, seized during a raid in 2008

The Iraqi government is suing the American private security company Blackwater, whose employees are suspected of killing 17 Baghdad civilians in 2007. In mid-December 2009, The New York Times reported that Blackwater was involved in kidnapping operations of people suspected of links to militants in Iraq.
Six months earlier, information appeared in the press that Blackwater had " special teams assassins" whose goal is to kill or capture al-Qaeda leaders. The secret program was stopped in July after CIA Director Leon Panetta privately briefed a number of congressmen about it, while the agency deliberately did not initiated American legislators into this.

In February 2009, the company renamed itself Xe Services LLC (pronounced "Zee"). Xe employees worked legally in Iraq until at least September 2009.

And now in 2010 the company was once again renamed Academi.

List of abbreviations -B.W. (Blackwater), PMC (private military company), theater of war - theater of military operations, BD - combat operations, AP - presidential administration,DoD (Department of Defense) - US Department of Defense, Armed Forces

Let's continue this topic: we have already discussed with you

Mercenaries participated in almost all major military campaigns: from Antiquity to the era of the Napoleonic Wars. In the 1960s, after a break of a century and a half, they returned to the stage. And since then, their role in military conflicts has only increased. Photo: ELI REED/MAGNUM PHOTOS/AGENCY.POTOGRAHER.RU

International law does not recognize them as full-fledged combatants, they are deprived of the security guarantees that prisoners of war have, and in some countries they are even outlawed. But the governments of major states, heads of transnational corporations and non-governmental organizations do not hesitate to enter into contracts with them, and in Ireland an entire museum has been created to perpetuate their glory. These people became the heroes of numerous books, from the ancient Anabasis of Xenophon to the modern novels of Frederick Forsyth, and they were given considerable space in the reflections on the ideal state of such outstanding social philosophers of the Middle Ages as Thomas More and Niccolò Machiavelli.

Their name is mercenaries. Condottieri, "wild geese", soldiers of fortune - in different times they were called differently, but this did not change the essence. Who are they? Ordinary criminals, scum collected to do dirty deeds? Or the noble adventurers, “brothers of hot and thick blood,” who in recent years have saved at least two African countries from bloody internecine wars?

To answer this question, we must first define the terms. Russian generals, who cannot stand the very idea of ​​a professional army, contemptuously call any military personnel who receives a salary a mercenary. Actually this is not true. The definition of a mercenary was formulated in the First Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the Laws of War. A mercenary is considered a person who, firstly, is specially recruited to fight in an armed conflict, secondly, actually takes direct part in hostilities, and thirdly (this is the main thing), takes part in hostilities, guided by the main Thus, the desire to receive personal benefit and the promised material reward, significantly exceeding the remuneration of military personnel of the same rank, performing the same functions, who are part of the armed forces of a given country, fourthly, is not a citizen of a country in conflict, and finally, fourthly, fifth, is not sent by a State that is not a party to the conflict to perform duties as a member of its armed forces.

Thus, a mercenary differs from a professional soldier (as well as, for example, a foreign volunteer) in that when he fights, he is guided primarily by selfish considerations. Neither the French Foreign Legion nor the Nepalese Gurkha units of the British Armed Forces are mercenaries. Yes, these units are not formed from citizens of the countries in whose armed forces they serve, but their salary corresponds to the salary of ordinary military personnel.

From "anabasis" to "wild geese"

For many centuries, military mercenaryism was considered a highly worthy occupation. The first apology for mercenaries can be considered “Anabasis” by the ancient commander Xenophon (first half of the 4th century BC) - the story of a ten-thousand-strong Greek army who fought in the ranks of the army of the Persian king Cyrus the Younger. And at the end of ancient Greece, mercenary became an extremely respected and very widespread profession. Greeks from the same city-states fought in both the army of Darius and the army of Alexander.

A new rise in mercenary activity occurred in the Middle Ages. The Vikings were among the first to master this profession: they gladly hired themselves into the personal guard of the Byzantine emperors. The famous Norwegian king Harald III was proud to take the position of chief of the emperor's security. During his 10 years in Constantinople (1035-1045), Harald participated in 18 battles, and upon returning to his homeland, he fought in Europe for another 20 years. In Italy, at the end of the Middle Ages, mercenary condottieri, who always had a detachment of experienced soldiers at their disposal, became the main acting force endless wars between city-states. Professionalism reached such heights there that when confronted in battle, the opponents were primarily concerned with outmaneuvering each other through skillful formations of troops, and tried their best not to harm each other. There is a known case when, as a result of a stubborn battle for many hours, only one person was killed.

During the same era, a correspondence discussion took place between Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More. The latter, depicting an ideal state in his “Utopia,” argued that its protection should be provided by an army of barbarian mercenaries, since the life of a citizen is too valuable. Machiavelli, whose experience of dealing with mercenaries was not only theoretical, in his famous book “The Prince” argued the exact opposite: mercenaries, whose goal is to get money, are not at all eager to sacrifice their lives on the battlefield. The founder of political realism reasoned quite cynically: a mercenary who suffers defeats is bad, but a mercenary who wins victories is much worse. For obvious reasons, he wonders: is the sovereign who hired him really so strong, and if not, then why not take his place? It must be admitted that the most successful of the Italian condottieri followed exactly the script prescribed by Machiavelli. The most striking example is the condottiere Muzio Attendolo, nicknamed Sforza (from sforzare - “to overcome by force”), a former peasant who laid the foundation for the dynasty of the Dukes of Milan.

IN XV-XVII centuries Landsknechts, independent detachments of mercenaries from different European countries, played a decisive role in European wars. The organization of the Landsknecht detachments was maximally focused on ensuring efficiency. For example, for every four hundred soldiers there was a translator from several European languages, and the captain, commander of the detachment, was obliged to speak these languages ​​himself.

In the 17th century, the famous “flights of the wild geese” began—that’s what Irish mercenary groups called their way to continental Europe. The first such “flight” took place in 1607, and over the next three centuries the Irish, demonstrating desperate courage, fought in all known wars, and not only in the Old World. Irish mercenaries participated in the creation of several states in Chile, Peru and Mexico, four Irish were close aides of George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and the other four signed the Declaration of Independence.

Finally, the welfare of entire nations was based on mass service in foreign countries. A classic example is the Swiss, who offered their swords to all the monarchs of Europe. So, in 1474, the French king Louis XI entered into an agreement with several Swiss villages. The monarch obliged each of them, as long as he was alive, to pay 20,000 francs annually: for this money, the villages were supposed to supply him with armed men if the king was at war and required help. The salary of each mercenary was four and a half guilders per month, and each trip to the field was paid at triple the monthly rate.

"Anabasis" by Xenophon

This is a classic military narrative of Antiquity - the story of the exploits of 13,000 Greek soldiers who contracted to participate in the war of the Persian king Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes, who ruled Babylon. In the decisive battle of Kunax (401 BC), a complete victory was won: the Greek mercenaries overthrew the troops of Artaxerxes. Thirsting for the death of his brother, Cyrus the Younger broke through to the tent of Artaxerxes, but was killed, and the Persian part of his army immediately surrendered. The Greeks also entered into negotiations, but were not going to give up: “It is not fitting for the winners to surrender their weapons,” they said. The Persians invited the straightforward Greek commanders to negotiate, promising immunity, but killed them in the hope that the leaderless mercenaries would turn into a herd. But at a general meeting the Greeks chose new commanders (among them was Xenophon, a student of Socrates), who led them home. It took eight months of hard travel from Babylon, along the Tigris, through the Armenian Highlands (here the Greeks saw snow for the first time), through the lands of foreign tribes, with whom they had to fight all the time, but thanks to their courage and training, the Greeks completed the unprecedented march and reached the Black Sea.

African adventures

The widespread use of mercenaries in the pre-industrial era is primarily due to the fact that military victory, due to the relative small number of armies, largely depended on the individual training of each warrior. Everything was determined by how deftly he handled a sling and javelin or a sword and musket, and whether he knew how to maintain formation in a phalanx or square. A trained professional warrior was on the battlefield worth a dozen, or even hundreds of peasant sons, herded into a feudal militia. But only the wealthiest of monarchs could afford to have a permanent professional army, which would have to be fed even in peacetime. Those who were poorer had to hire landsknechts just before the war. It is clear that they received money, at best, as long as the fighting lasted. And more often, the employer ran out of funds earlier, and the mercenaries could only count on victory and capturing trophies.

The advent of the industrial age reduced mercenary activity to almost nothing. The unified production of effective and at the same time easy-to-handle weapons made years of training unnecessary. The time has come for conscript armies. If military wisdom can be taught in just three or four years, if it can be quickly (the appearance of railways) gather people around the country, there is no need to maintain a large army in peacetime. Instead, all men in the country, after undergoing military training, became reservists in a mass mobilization army. Therefore, the First and Second World Wars, where millions took part in the battles, actually went without mercenaries. And they were in demand again in the 60s of the 20th century, when the decolonization of Africa began.

In countries where colonial administrative structures had collapsed and there were no armies at all, an armed struggle for power immediately began. In this situation, a couple of hundred professional military men, familiar with guerrilla and counter-guerrilla tactics, made president and prime minister of any tribal leader or retired official of the old colonial administration who hired them.

In 1961, a long civil war engulfed one of the richest African states, Congo. Almost immediately after the country declared its independence, the province of Katanga, famous for its diamond mines and copper mines, announced its separation. Self-proclaimed Prime Minister Moise Tshombe began to recruit his own army, the backbone of which was French and British mercenaries, and the conflict instantly fit into the context of the Cold War: the USSR declared support for the central government, which was headed by Patrice Lumumba. Tribal clashes broke out in the Congo, killing tens of thousands of civilians.

In all this bloody whirlwind, in which several tribal groups, UN troops, and Belgian paratroopers took part, mercenaries played a decisive role. It was in the Congo that the stars of the most famous “soldiers of fortune” rose - the Frenchman Bob Denard and the British Michael Hoare, from whose biographies one can write the history of the most famous 20 years of mercenaryism. And the bloodiest: as a result of the events of the 1960-1970s, mercenaries began to be looked at as bandits. It was not for nothing that Denard’s team called themselves les affreux - “the terrible”: torture and murder were the norm in this unit. However, the cruelty of the European “soldiers of fortune” hardly overshadowed the inhumanity of other participants in conflicts in Africa. Michael Hoare recalled with some confusion that he witnessed how Chombov's men boiled a prisoner alive. And the constantly rebellious Simba tribe, which was supported by Cuban and Chinese instructors, was little inferior in cruelty to its fellow countrymen.

Bob Denard

One biographer called him "the last pirate." A sailor in the French navy, a colonial police officer in Morocco, and a professional mercenary, Denard managed to try himself in various roles. In addition to the Congo, the “soldiers of fortune” under his command fought in Yemen, Gabon, Benin, Nigeria and Angola. In the late 1970s, through the efforts of Denard, the Comoros became a promised land for mercenaries. In 1978, he returned to power the republic, which declared independence in 1975, its first president, Ahmed Abdallah, and headed the presidential guard for the next 10 years. At this time, Comoros turned into a real mercenary republic. Denard himself became the largest property owner in the Comoros, converted to Islam and started a harem. After an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1995, Denard, who was evacuated to France, unexpectedly became involved in several criminal cases, not only in his homeland, but also in Italy. Although one of the retired French intelligence chiefs confirmed that the mercenaries almost always acted “at the request” of the French intelligence services, Denard received four years in prison, but did not spend a single day there: during the process, the “last pirate” fell ill with Alzheimer’s disease and died in 2007.

Soldiers of Misfortune

The Renaissance did not last long, and already at the end of the 1970s the decline of traditional mercenaries began. It all started with the trial of white mercenaries captured by government forces in Angola. The authorities of this country, who seemed to have chosen the “path of socialist development,” supported the USSR and its satellites (in particular Cuba). And the process had an obvious political background - it was supposed to demonstrate that Angola had become a victim of aggression by Western intelligence services. The trial was well prepared: from the interrogations of the accused and witnesses, a far from romantic picture emerged of how clever recruiters seduce unemployed alcoholics with easy money. But the “seduced” did not receive leniency: three mercenaries were sentenced to death, and another two dozen went to prison for a long time.

And then off we go. The coup attempt organized by Michael Hoare in the Seychelles ended in shameful failure in 1981. When Hoar and his commandos arrived on the islands under the guise of members of a certain beer club that organizes entertainment tours once a year, a disassembled Kalashnikov assault rifle was found in their luggage at customs. The “tourists” were surrounded, and they barely managed to escape on an Indian Air plane hijacked right there at the airport. In South Africa, where the mercenaries flew, they were immediately arrested, and Hoar ended up in prison, after which he retired.

It turned out even worse with Bob Denard. In 1989, Ahmed Abdallah, his protege as President of Comoros, was killed, and he himself was evacuated by French paratroopers. In 1995, at the head of three dozen fighters, Denard landed in the Comoros, where another three hundred armed people were waiting for him, preparing a new military coup. But the President of Comoros turned for military assistance to France, the country whose assignments Denard had carried out for many years, and the legendary mercenary was betrayed. Paratroopers of the Foreign Legion, who had fought shoulder to shoulder with Bob so many times, surrounded his group and forced him to surrender, and then quietly took him to France.

By the end of the 20th century, mercenarism in its traditional form fell into decline. Just look at the farcical story of the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea in 2004! The “mercenaries” who participated in it seem to have been recruited from among high-society slackers: for example, the son of the famous Iron Lady Mark Thatcher, Lord Archer and oil trader Eli Kalil were involved in the conspiracy (although among those detained there were also professionals - former South African special forces). The preparation of the plot was discovered by the Zimbabwean special services, the mercenaries were arrested, but they all got off with symbolic sentences, and Mark Thatcher, who lived in South Africa, received a suspended sentence and was sent to London under the supervision of his mother.

Michael Hoar

Nicknamed the Mad Irishman, Michael Hoare fought in British tank units in North Africa during World War II. After retiring, he organized safaris for tourists in South Africa. In 1961, Hoare appeared in the Congo at the head of Commando 4, which consisted of several dozen thugs.

Quite soon, under attacks from UN troops, he withdrew his group to Portuguese Angola and reappeared in the Congo in 1964: Tshombe, who had become prime minister by that time, hired him to suppress the uprising of the Simba tribe, which had previously supported Lumumba.

While carrying out this task, Hoar encountered another celebrity - Che Guevara, who went to Africa to stir up a world revolution. The Cuban commanders were unable to resist Hoar's mercenaries: Che Guevara was forced to flee Africa, and several dozen captured Cubans were hanged. Hoar's commandos, together with Cuban pilots hired by the CIA, also took part in the most famous operation of the Belgian army, as a result of which several hundred white hostages captured by the Simba were freed in the city of Stanleyville.

Just business, nothing personal

The decline of “traditional” mercenaryism was predetermined by a radical change in the international climate. The Cold War ended, and the volume of covert operations involving mercenaries dropped markedly. After the collapse of the apartheid regime, South Africa ceased to serve as the main employer, the most important base and source of personnel for mercenaries. The “front of work” has also decreased sharply. African states, at the very least, created national armies, intelligence services and police and no longer felt an urgent need for the services of “soldiers of fortune.” And Western states, due to the all-conquering political correctness, began to hesitate to communicate with mercenaries.

As a result, the always drunk, weapon-laden “wild geese” were replaced by respectable gentlemen with laptops. And it was not clandestine “soldier of fortune” recruitment centers that began accepting orders, but private military companies (PMCs), providing the widest range of services in the field of security. According to experts, today more than two million people are employed in this area, and the total value of contracts exceeds $100 billion a year (that is, twice the Russian military budget).

The end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s of the 20th century was the peak of success of the “soldiers of fortune” and their public popularity. During this period, Frederick Forsyth writes his famous novel “Dogs of War,” in which noble white warriors give the black inhabitants of the country they captured a platinum deposit. At the same time, the film “Wild Geese” was released, in which the famous Richard Burton (pictured) played the extremely romanticized image of the dignified Colonel Faulkner, whose prototype is said to be Hoare (he also acts as a consultant for the film). As a result, despite the efforts of UN lawyers and Soviet propagandists, mercenaries in the eyes of ordinary people acquired the image not of bloody killers, but of noble adventurers, burdened with the burden of a white man. Photo: GETTY IMAGES/FOTOBANK.COM, EVERETT COLLECTION/RPG

At first glance, the only difference between representatives of such a serious business and Hoare and Denard is that the former are officially registered and have given an official commitment not to participate in any illegal transactions. However, it is not a matter of legal formulas. In the 90s of the 20th century, it suddenly became clear that legal customers represented by states, transnational corporations and international non-governmental organizations are much more profitable than candidate dictators. And the most important element of military operations of the last 10-15 years has been the outsourcing of quite important public functions to private military companies.

The current flourishing of private military companies is caused both by a revolution in military affairs and by changes in the political and social situation. On the one hand, the technological revolution made the existence of mass mobilization armies meaningless. New means of warfare based on computer and information technologies, again, as in the pre-industrial era, brought to the fore the individual fighter - an expert in the use of modern weapons. On the other hand, the public in developed countries is extremely sensitive to losses among the soldiers of their armies. The death of military personnel is expensive not only figuratively, but also literally: for example, the death of each American soldier costs the Pentagon at least half a million dollars: special payments (in addition to insurance) and special family benefits, including funding for medical care and education. And a mercenary, even though his salary is several times higher than that of a military man, costs much less. Firstly, he receives his big money not for several decades in a row, but within a short period of time. Secondly, the state does not pay for his death or injury - these risks in the form of insurance amounts are initially included in the cost of the contract with the PMC. And the losses of private military companies are sometimes comparable to those of the army. For example, in 2004, in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, as a result of an attack on a convoy guarded by Blackwater employees, four guards were captured by a crowd, killed and burned.

Private military companies made their presence felt already in the mid-1990s. Retired US military personnel hired by Military Professional Resources took part in preparing operations for Bosnian Muslims and Croats against Serbian military forces. However, these operations still fit into the old concept of military confrontation of the Cold War era: mercenaries were invited to operate in areas where the United States and Western European countries considered it inconvenient to participate directly. A true demonstration of the new face and new functions of mercenaries was the operation in Sierra Leone, where an extremely bloody civil war had been going on for several years.

A group called the Revolutionary United Front fought against the government of Sierra Leone, whose militants cut off the hands of civilians in order to intimidate them. Government troops suffered one defeat after another, the rebels were already 30 kilometers from the capital, and the UN could not form a peacekeeping force. And then the government hired a private military company, Executive Outcomes, created in South Africa mainly from former special forces soldiers, for $60 million. The company quickly formed a light infantry battalion, which was equipped with armored personnel carriers, recoilless rifles and mortars and was supported by several attack helicopters. And it took this battalion only a couple of weeks to defeat the anti-government forces.

The situation in the country has stabilized so much that it was possible to hold the first elections in 10 years. The nine-month contract with Executive Outcomes soon expired. The transnational mining companies that financed this operation from behind the scenes considered it a done deal. And they were wrong: the civil war began again. This time, UN peacekeeping forces, assembled mainly from units of African states, finally got involved. The peacekeeping operation, which cost about $500 million each year, ended in 2005 without significant results. An audit carried out by UN officials revealed the monstrous unpreparedness of the “blue helmets”: they operated without armored vehicles or air support and even almost without ammunition - there were only two cartridges for each rifle! And soon the government of Sierra Leone again turned to a private military company, which, among other things, began to rescue UN peacekeepers...

Far from being angels

Employees of one of the largest American private military firms, Blackwater, have become notorious. In 2007, they staged a shootout in the center of Baghdad, killing 17 civilians. After this scandal, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Service, which allowed the Pentagon to enter into a new contract with the company to train Iraqi troops worth half a billion dollars. Another high-profile scandal occurred with employees of the ArmourGroup company, who were guarding the American embassy in Kabul. In 2009, it turned out that they were organizing drunken orgies on the territory of the diplomatic mission.

Profitable business

According to experts from the American Brookings Institution, the market for PMC services is over $100 billion a year, and over two million people participate in their activities. Such “grands” as DynCorp and Xe Service employ tens of thousands of people. But PMCs with a staff of several hundred employees are much more common. Most PMCs are registered in offshore companies, but, as a rule, their leaders and personnel are Americans and British. These companies are happy to welcome veterans of Gurkha units, former soldiers of the Fijian peacekeeping battalion in Sinai, and retirees of the Philippine Marine Corps. And recently, private military companies from Serbia have been particularly successful in the market.

Changing of the guard

This story has become a textbook example of the ineffectiveness of UN peacekeeping and the effectiveness of PMCs. Experts pointed out that private military companies, firstly, do not waste time on political agreements within the Security Council and overcoming bureaucratic barriers. Secondly, unlike the governments of developing countries whose troops participate in peacekeeping operations, they do not skimp on the maintenance and supply of their forces. And thirdly, contracting to carry out a specific military task for a certain amount, PMCs, unlike states that receive about a million dollars a year from the UN for each peacekeeping battalion, are not at all interested in delaying the operation.

But the real flowering of private military companies began after US and NATO troops entered Afghanistan and Iraq. It soon became clear that the alliance did not have enough personnel to carry out auxiliary and related operations: escorting convoys, guarding representative offices of government and international organizations, guarding various warehouses. These services were offered by mercenaries, contracts with which were no longer concluded by the governments of developing countries, but by the State Department and the US Department of Defense. The American military department even created a special department responsible for concluding contracts with private military companies.

In 2008, up to 20,000 PMC employees were already working in Iraq, while the size of the military group reached 130,000 soldiers and officers. As American troops withdraw, the Pentagon is handing over more functions to private military companies, including, for example, training Iraqi troops and police. Accordingly, the number of mercenaries is growing: according to experts, by 2012 it could reach 100,000 people. The same thing is happening in Afghanistan, where companies like DynCorp and Blackwater have become essentially private armies.

The sharply increased demand for mercenary services has even created a personnel shortage. To perform simple security functions, private military companies began to hire local residents en masse, something they had previously tried not to do. Too active recruitment of personnel in Afghanistan even led to a conflict with the country's leadership. The Afghan president issued an ultimatum demanding an end to the activities of PMCs luring military personnel from the regular army. And the growing shortage of specialists with combat experience (retirees from the USA and Great Britain are no longer enough) leads to completely unexpected results. According to rumors, South Africa's special forces forces have been reduced by almost half due to a sharp outflow of personnel into the private sector, where salaries can reach thousands of dollars a day.

Russian specialists have also found their place in the modern mercenary market. International Charters, registered in Oregon, hired both retired American paratroopers and former Soviet special forces in the 1990s, who worked together and effectively in Liberia, where a bloody civil war broke out, killing tens of thousands of people. And this is not surprising: in the mercenary international, former opponents get along well with each other. Perhaps this is a consequence of the personnel policy of the management of private military companies, which, as a rule, care little about the past of their subordinates and who fought on which side before. In the community of modern mercenaries, both former Serbian special forces soldiers are equally highly valued (human rights activists have repeatedly criticized the British company Hart Group for hiring large groups of Serbs who fought in Bosnia and may be involved in war crimes) and their colleagues from Croatia.

This “promiscuity” of private military companies can be explained simply: if you require a candidate to be a mercenary to have combat experience, then it is hardly possible to place high moral demands on him. And several high-profile scandals involving the personnel of various PMCs serve as confirmation of this. And yet, the demand for the services of modern mercenaries is growing. Despite all the ambiguity of the experience of private military companies, it should be recognized that they are becoming an important military force not because politicians change their moral guidelines, but because military technologies are rapidly changing.