How large can a PMC get?
not that big
>>64410506the optimal PMC is less than 1000 mercsbut there is no theoretical limita single PMC could operate with all the wage soldiers in the world
>>64410506Company
>>64410522Peak performer.
>>64410506Large enough to march on Moscow.
>>64410506Why didn't they wear any camo?
G4S has half a million employees. Its primarily mallcops, prison security and bank transfers, but the guys at Benghazi were G4S employees so its not all mundane.
>>64410506me bottom center
>>64411100worrying about camo is for larpers or generals looking for a promotion
>>64411100Because camo is for army guys and the bad guys are looking for army guys
>>64411100There was a heavy push in the early 2000s for contractors to distance themselves from the traditional EO-style mercenaries of the 80s and 90s. Hence the dress codes, polo shirts, neutral block colors, etc.
>>64410506PMCs are, by definition, private companies. This means that, like all other private corporate activities, the end goal is making money. Now, what kind of money depends on whether your public or private.If you're public, then it's maximizing shareholder wealth that you're trying for (business majors and ethicists fretting about executive self-interest need not apply). This can, and often is, funny money, ephemeral ideas of future profitability driving up the share price, which shareholders use to finance other things. Tesla was one of the most famous examples for many years, a money pit that still saw yearly increases in share price because of the power of Elon Musk's cult of personality.If your private, the goal is more traditional cold, hard, cash. This means you need to be profitable very soon, if not immediately, because in the meantime your burning through the founders' savings and his lines of credit. This is what tends to kill small businesses.Either way, you probably end up in the same place, though as I mentioned previously the equity markets can distort the usual economics based on faith in future returns. Thus, we must balance the cost of our inputs (men and equipment, at bottom) with our revenues from outputs (contracts we perform). Paul Blart with a police trade-in P226 is a hell of a lot cheaper to pay, to outfit, and to field, so we could build a pretty big PMC based off of that, especially if we can cushy corporate security deals where we're getting paid as much for peace of mind as we are for any actual risk. By contrast, some Tier One wannabe with all his Gucci gear is going to cost an arm and a leg, but if he isn't all talk then we can do the really cool stuff, like driving into remote African villages and disappearing people because De Beers needs more laborers.
>>64411223Thus, as >>64411106 suggests, we could build a pretty big PMC in terms of raw numbers, but it will consist mostly of poorly-equipped, low-skill employees. Sadly, fantasies stoked by Advanced Warfare and GTA 5 are unlikely to ever come true. The only way a true private army becomes practical is to put the virtually bottomless fisc of a state behind it. And the history of professionalization shows that mercenary armies had a nasty habit of bankrupting their employers (to say nothing of loyalty issues), hence why standing armies became the norm. The idea may be cool, but reality is unfortunately too gay to let it happen.
>>64411225i mean we did have wagner crop
>>64411256True, but it was less of a traditional PMC and more of an unusually-large deniable force. Even then, it was quite small for most of its history, relying on hand-me-downs or local forces for anything heavier than personal equipment. The guys that got BTFO in Syria, remember, were accompanied by Syrian armor and Syrian artillery, not their own organic armor or artillery. By the time they got drug into Ukraine, they were just another branch of the Russian military, hence pic related.
>>64411256Wagner has always been another branch of the Russian military just under a different name for plausible deniability. No other PMC operates that much firepower, it's just too expensive to keep around and use at a profit. Even at their peak Blackwater never had jets or anything bigger than MRAPs and armed crop dusters
man imagine living in the 80s where you could join a PMC, invade a 3rd world country and gun down nons at will.never forget what they took from you.
>>64411106Are you confusing CIA's Global Response Staff, GRS, with G4S, Group 4 Securicor?G4S do for sure have some work in and around embassies and diplomatic stuff, but it's not really the type associated with the benghazi attacks.
>>64411356NTA, but thats not mutually exclusive. G4s ran the security at Gitmo for a while, they're in deep with the DOD.
>>64410506I've met that midget, cool guy. Rock climber with a hardcore handshake.
>>64411225my fantasies came from Ace Combat, thank you very much
>>64411100They're not in the military and they're not trying to hide. They want to be seen to deter provocation.
>>64410506As large as the government allows, you can privatize a whole military if you are retarded enough.
