Posts Tagged executive outcomes

Industry Talk: Roelf Van Heerden And Men Lead PMPF Operation To Free MV Iceberg 1 Hostages

Jan 29

Posted by Matt in Industry Talk, Kidnap And Ransom, Somalia | No Comments

This is all types of cool. Basically the PMPF and their South African mentors/trainers rescued the hostages of the MV Iceberg 1 after a two week siege. This is significant, because this rescue/siege was conducted by a private South African force who commanded an assault force they trained, with the blessing of the Puntland government. And they rescued 22 hostages who had been held for over 1000 days, after a 10 day siege. Ross Perot, eat your heart out.

What is interesting about the account below is the tactics involved and how they adapted to the changing situation. And how Rolf van Heerden’s crew was able to finally resolve the siege using some recoilless weapons, minus the weapon sights. lol

“I asked Mohamed Farole if we could get hold of larger weapons or even mortars. I also talked personally to President Farole about the situation and he raised a concern that we might kill or injure the hostages. We did manage to get hold of a Soviet 82 mm B-10 recoilless rifle and a number of rounds and it wasn’t long before we had deployed it on the beach. With no sights available the crew took aim by aligning the weapon and the ship through the open breach and we fired a number of rounds, striking the vessel around the bridge area.
“The pirates on board obviously took fright and contacted the Puntland ambassador in Dubai to inform him that they wished to surrender but that we should stop shooting at them first. We held our fire on two occasions in an effort to give them the opportunity to surrender but, after a number of breakdowns in communication, I had had enough and we resumed the bombardment of the vessel with all available weapons.
“An old United States 106 mm recoilless rifle, unearthed from the rear of a private home, was the next heavy weapon to arrive, together with six rounds provided by the Puntland government. The aiming process was repeated and after two misses the crew found the correct range and four rounds smashed into the ship with resounding explosions, setting the vessel on fire. This effectively changed the pirates’ minds and they indicated that they really wished to surrender and talk.”

If you want a good primer on Roelf, check out his book called Four Ball One Tracer. He was a commanding officer for Executive Outcomes back in the day, and currently he works under the employ of the PMPF.

Now I am not sure if he is still with Sterling Corporate Services, Bancroft Global Development, or hired directly as a member of the PMPF? There was a lot of back and forth about money and the survival of the PMPF, and it is hard to say what the arrangement is now. All though it is obvious that the men of Sterling Corporate Services are still with the force, and they are still operating.

If you remember, SCS lost one of their men in a PMPF operation last year, and that put them on the map. The UN has been trying to shut them down because they are viewed as the competition that is making the UN look bad. lol Funny how the UN could support and oppose such a force, all at the same time?

With that said, there have been several sources that have identified the effectiveness of the SCS trained and mentored PMPF force, and a reduction in piracy could be attributed to their actions.

Building up indigenous ground forces has also helped. What has really thwarted pirate networks is a ground force known as the Puntland Maritime Police Force, according to an expert who has worked on the ground in Somalia. The PMPF is about 400 men, recruited locally and trained to be a professional anti-piracy police force. And it’s worked, says former Green Beret Roger Carstens, who is working on a project about Somalia and the maritime force and has spent much time on the ground there in recent months. “They basically went in and chased the pirates to keep them out,” Carstens told Situation Report. “That kept the pirates out of the pirate towns, where they staged their attacks, and it screwed [their] investors,” he said. But he warns that if support and resources ebb for the ground force, it could falter. That would be a good thing for the pirates.

“If they fail, you could easily see a resurgence of piracy writ large,” Carstens said, emphasizing that the concentration of pirate activity emanates from Puntland, an area of northeastern Somalia that was declared an autonomous state in 1998.

The other thing that I was curious about is who is paying for the PMPF now? I imagine that the UAE is still funding it. or maybe the owners of the Iceberg paid Puntland to conduct this rescue? Who knows and if anyone is familiar with the funding and survival of the PMPF, I am all ears. Either way, good on Roelf and company and good on the PMPF for rescuing these guys. -Matt

 

PMPF forces conducting operations to free crew of MV Iceberg 1.

 

Exclusive: South African-led operation frees hostages from Somali pirates
Written by Andrew Hudson
Tuesday, 29 January 2013 This is
In December 2012 the Puntland Maritime Police Force rescued 22 sailors who had been held hostage on board the Panama-registered ship Iceberg 1 for nearly three years – the longest period for any hostages held by Somali pirates. Roelf van Heerden, the South African commander of the ground force, gives an exclusive first-hand account of the operation.
The Iceberg 1, a 4 500 tonne roll on/roll off cargo vessel owned by Dubai-based Azal Shipping, was hijacked just ten nautical miles off Aden, Yemen, on March 29, 2010. She was carrying generators, transformers and fuel tanks and had a crew of 24 from Yemen, India, Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The Iceberg 1 eventually ran aground in September 2011 off Garacad, a small coastal village in the Galmudug region on Somalia’s eastern seaboard. With two hostages dead, a continuing standoff between the owners and the pirates, and an exhausted, sickly crew of hostages, the last months of 2012 held little prospect of an end to the ordeal. That was until the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), under the command of a team of South Africans, took action.
Roelf van Heerden, who commanded the ground forces, is permanently employed by the PMPF and his main role, together with other South Africans, is to train the PMPF and deploy the police force. Van Heerden now takes up the story:
“On 28 October 2012 Mohamed Farole, son of Puntland’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, called me at the headquarters of the PMPF in Bossaso and briefed me about the Iceberg. Mohamed, who is the director of the PMPF, also asked me to carefully assess whether the PMPF could undertake an operation aimed at freeing the hostages.
“All previous attempts to resolve the hijacking, including offers of a ransom, had failed due to disagreements between the parties on the ransom amount, the means and the location of the ransom transfer. The ship’s crew were also reportedly in a sorry physical and mental state. The first fatality, a Yemeni, was said to have committed suicide in October 2010 after continuous harassment by the pirates. The other fatality amongst the hostages was the first officer, Dhiraj Kumar Tiwari, who had been severely tortured by the pirates and had not been seen since September 2011.
“The vessel had also run out of fuel and the seasonal high winds had caused both the ship’s anchors to break loose allowing the vessel to drift helplessly onto the rocks. The Iceberg’s hull had ruptured and the lower hold containing eighteen very large generators in 12-metre containers had flooded.

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Books: Four Ball, One Tracer: Commanding Executive Outcomes In Angola And Sierra Leone, By Roelf Van Heerden

Dec 24

Posted by Matt in Africa, Books, Cool Stuff | No Comments

Very cool. If you are a fan of Executive Outcomes or a student of private military companies and their uses for war fighting, then this is your book. I have not read this book yet, but this is definitely on my list for Christmas. lol

I would be interested to hear what others have to say if they have read it. I am particularly intrigued with the idea of leading a modern private military force for offensive operations, and all of the unique challenges associated with that endeavor. There is much written about modern military leadership during combat operations, but very little written about modern private military leadership as it applies to combat operations.

It is also a unique study on the true potential of PMC’s, and this kind of insight would give any author, film maker or video game developer some extremely valuable information as to how this type of force really works. The book will be in the Jundi Gear store if anyone wants to find it again in the future. -Matt

Edit: 07/06/2012- I just got an email from Andrew Hudson and he informed me that the book is published and being sold at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, barnesandnoble.com, helion.co.uk, and 30degreessouth.co.za. So if anyone reads the book, definitely let us know what you think here. Maybe the authors might come out and answer some questions as well?

 

Four Ball, One Tracer: Commanding Executive Outcomes In Angola And Sierra Leone
By Roelf van Heerden as told to Andrew Hudson
Book Description
Publication Date: June 2012
Brutally honest and devoid of hyperbole, this is Roelf van Heerden’s Executive Outcomes. / Unapologetic, unassuming and forthright, the combat exploits of Executive Outcomes (EO) in Angola and Sierra Leone are recounted for the first time by a battlefield commander who was physically on the ground during all their major combat operations. From fighting UNITA for the critical oil installations and diamond fields of Angola to the offensive against the RUF in Sierra Leone to capture the Kono diamond fields and the palace coup which ousted Captain Valentine Strasser, van Heerden was at the forefront. He tells of the tragedy of child soldiers, illegal diamond mining and the curse of government soldiers who turn on their own people; he tells of RUF atrocities, the harrowing attempt to rescue a downed EO pilot and the poignant efforts to recover the remains of EO soldiers killed in action. Coupled with van Heerden’s gripping expose’, hitherto unpublished photographs, order of battle charts and battle maps offer unprecedented access to the major actions as they took place on the ground during the heydays of EO.
Buy the book here.

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Publications: From Dogs Of War To Soldiers Of Peace, By Stephen Wittels

Nov 30

Posted by Matt in Publications | No Comments

A big hat tip to David Isenberg for finding this paper. He does a fantastic job of finding the really interesting publications out there that need to be read and discussed. It should also be noted that this particular piece won the 1st Prize in the Awards For Excellence contest at the Journal of Military and Strategic Studies back in 2010. Pretty cool.

As to the paper itself, the point of it is to address the problem that the UN has in getting member states to contribute quality forces. Or the problem the UN has in getting enough troops that are capable enough to do the job. So a quantity and quality problem, and a possible solution to address that. The paper argues that PMC’s could be the solution to the quantity and quality problem that the UN is up against.

Contractors are also politically acceptable, just because no one cries when we are killed. With member states, when they send their military units to the UN for peacekeeping duties, and that mission goes horribly wrong and many troops are killed, then that becomes politically sticky for those leaders of those states to deal with. Tragedies in peacekeeping could actually force states to pull out troops, or a mission might be too dangerous, and no states want to contribute forces–all because those missions are threats to the careers of politicians in those contributing nations. That is reality, and PMC’s are one way to mitigate that reality.

Or worse, you get states that have poor and corrupt leaders who view their military as a way to make money by pimping them out to the UN. They could care less about taking care of their military, or accomplishing the mission/providing a good service. What matters to them is getting paid by the UN, and then letting the UN and the other member states figure out how to take care of their prostituted military. Meanwhile, those poor leaders also rip off their soldiers and siphon off their pay.  Pfffft.

Now of course I have cursed the UN in the past, just because they seem to cause more problems than fix problems in these countries. But it is also important to note that a properly equipped and armed professional force with a well defined mission can make all the difference in the world.  So if the UN wants to go down this path and have it succeed, then it will first have to square away the way it does business. It will have to first accept that PMC’s can do this kind of work, and then they will have focus on lessons learned within their organization and within the current wartime contracting lessons learned by the west. (or at least trying to learn…lol)

In other words, they can build a model contracting system, but it will take reaching out to other country’s experiences, other industries and companies, and ‘building a snowmobile’ out of all of these lessons and ideas. Because the really hard and costly lessons that the US has experienced, could totally help the UN form a sound contracting system that delivers the services they want and need.

Another point I wanted to bring up is that in my opinion, the optimum contracting mechanism that best mitigates the principal agent problem is the ‘best value’ contracting method. The lowest priced, technically acceptable contracting mechanism is a horrible way to do business, and it is a ‘race to the bottom’.  So instead of getting poor troops from member states, you will replace them with poor PMC’s if you go this route.

Furthermore, you must have a professional contractor management force that actually produces the correct ratio of management per contract. Please do not assign one guy to manage billions of dollars and thousands of people and multiple contracts. A division of labor is vital to this effort, and those people tasked with watching these contracts need to know what they are doing and what they are looking for. Like I said, the lessons are there if anyone is willing to study this stuff.

Oh, and why was there no mention of the excellent work that Executive Outcomes did in Sierra Leone, or the cost effectiveness of that PMC, versus the total waste of UN manpower and money to do the same job there? (see the graphic above) Or where was there any mention of the UN calling Executive Outcomes and asking for help and a quote on services for dealing with the Rwanda Genocide crisis back in the nineties? My point here is that the UN should be talking with men like Eeben Barlow, and asking exactly the best way to partner and work with such companies like EO. Who knows, the UN could have actually stopped the Rwandan Genocide if they would have hired a company like EO?

I guess the final deal I want to talk about is the global economy. Right now, there are austerity measures being implemented throughout the world, and the availability of force for the UN and it’s member states is decreasing because of it. The UN will have less money and less force to work with under the current constraints of that economy, and missions will suffer because of it. That’s unless they get creative and actually look to private industry as a way to save money and provide a force with capability. I believe private industry can be a great service to the UN, but that all goes out the window if the UN does not set this up correctly or fails to manage these contracts properly. -Matt

 

From Dogs of War to Soldiers of Peace: Evaluating Private Military and Security Companies as a Civilian Pro…

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Disaster Response: PSC’s Come To The Rescue For Massive Evacuations In Libya

Feb 26

Posted by Matt in Disaster Response, Industry Talk, Libya | 1 Comment

     Governments and private companies around the world scrambled Thursday to evacuate citizens and workers from violence-hit Libya, as Italy braced for a “biblical” exodus of up to 300,000 migrants.

     Fears of a full-scale civil war in the North African country prompted countries from Canada to China to scramble to charter ferries and planes to secure their citizens’ safety despite poor communication links and growing violence.

     Thousands of foreigners packed Tripoli’s airport hoping to leave the widening chaos behind.

     I am only scratching the surface here on what private security companies are actually doing in Libya. But to say the least, what they are doing is incredible and life saving.  There are thousands of citizens and clients trapped in Libya, and it is a massive evacuation effort to get them all out. From the oil workers and engineers, to the diplomats and businessmen from all over the world–there is a massive exodus going on in Libya and private security companies are a crucial part of this evacuation.

    One of the pieces of news that jumped out at me was the mention of the British SAS working with PSC’s to rescue British citizens.  There are many of that country’s expats working in Libya, and they are scrambling forces to get in there and rescue folks.  The PSC’s are on the ground already and many are prior service folks with connections to special forces units from all over. It makes perfect sense that they would coordinate with groups like the SAS.  The point I wanted to emphasize here is that it isn’t just private industry or government doing this alone. This is an ‘all hands on deck’ moment, and it takes private industry and government working together to accomplish the task.

     It is also important to note that we are hearing the same kinds of pleas coming from the folks trapped in Libya, that we heard in places like New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  That too was a massive evacuation effort that dwarfed the capabilities of the government and what was available to deploy right then and there. During that disaster, PSC’s were called upon to participate in a massive evacuation effort as well, and their use was driven by the concept of ‘do whatever it takes’ to save people.  That included using private security along with the thousands of fire/police/military units from across the US. Plus, PSC’s can deploy extremely fast and can scale up or down pretty fast to meet the needs on the ground.

     Now on to the future of PSC’s in Libya.  After everyone is evacuated, the next step will be either extracting equipment or protecting it in place.   There are millions, if not billions of dollars worth of equipment in the oil fields of Libya and I just can’t see the companies that either own or leased that equipment willing to just throw it away or leave it to be pillaged and neglected. Not to mention the money lost in oil revenues.  So will we see future contracts like when EO was contracted back in the early nineties to rescue equipment for Ranger Oil in Angola?  Who knows, but I do know that these oil company assets are definitely exposed and extremely vulnerable right now.

     Finally, bravo to SOS International, Control Risks, Blue Mountain Group and all of the other PSC’s for all the work they are doing out there. These guys are saving lives in an an extremely dangerous and chaotic environment and they are the unsung heroes of this historic uprising spreading like fire across the Middle East and Africa. -Matt

BREAKING NEWS… Successful Libyan Evacuation

Control Risks supports clients in wake of Egypt protests

International SOS responds to unrest in Libya

SAS ready to rescue desert Britons

Countries rush to evacuate citizens from Libya

BREAKING NEWS… Successful Libyan Evacuation

Blue Mountain Group News

February, 2011

BLUE MOUNTAIN TEAM HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED A SAFE EVACUATION OF CLIENT PERSONNEL FROM LIBYA.

*****

Success has its own rewards, growth is one of them, welcome to the new Blue Mountain Group website.

The Blue Mountain Group is a Special Forces based company that has evolved into four distinct operational divisions (click on the links to the left) specialising in Security, Maritime Security, Driver Training and Adventure.

Each division is specialised and focused on delivering unique quantifiable services which are customer driven and client  focused (please review our news column below and on each of the four main home pages where some of our recent activity can be seen).

In a market saturated with companies offering the ‘best available’ we stand or fall on our reputation.

Please review the services that you are interested in and then allow us to validate these services through demonstration of capability and through our historic client recognition.

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Aviation: Air Power On The Cheap

Sep 26

Posted by Matt in Aviation | No Comments

In aerial combat, then, low tech may be the new high tech. And there is one other advantage that the turboprop has over the jet, at least according to Mr Read—who flew turboprops on combat missions in Cambodia during the 1970s. It is that you can use a loudspeaker to talk to potential targets before deciding whether to attack them. As Winston Churchill so memorably put it: “When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.” 

*****

     Warfare on the cheap is all the rage these days and this is an excellent little article from the Economist on the subject of cheap air power.  I just talked about Colombia’s use of these types of aircraft in their war against the FARC and I thought I would add further information behind the concept. I should also note that PMC’s like Executive Outcomes had their own air assets for operations, and that too could be classified as ‘air power on the cheap’.  If it gets the job done and you are dealing with an enemy that has no air power, then these ideas make sense.

     The one thing I keep thinking about though, is that I like cheap air power that has a high probability of survival. Or better yet, is cheap and unmanned. I think as soon as we can put robotics into these cheap propeller type aircraft, then we are effectively creating cheaper drones with built in supply and maintenance systems. Imagine an unmanned Cessna Caravan doing these types of military missions?

     Or an unmanned cargo carrier like a 747 with a payload of JDAM type munitions that could be dropped from extreme heights? There are plenty of these old, yet still working aircraft that could be outfitted with robotics. Cheap drones produced from such aircraft could be a market all by itself, and especially as smaller nations join the larger nations in their desire to have this capability– for a fraction of the price.

     Not to take away from the value of having a human in the cockpit, which to me is still the smartest computer out there. I think there will always be a need for this man and machine relationship, and especially if future small wars will require extreme discipline and precision, along with common sense and a feel for the battle field. Only a guy in the plane can really get that feel for their little patch of war and how to dominate the enemy and work with other forces. We might get there one day with UAVs, but I still think humans will have a place. -Matt

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Super Tucano

The Super Tucano, made by Embraer.

Air power on the cheap

Small, slow and inexpensive propeller-driven planes are starting to displace fighter jets

Sep 20th 2010

JET fighters may be sexy in a Tom Cruise-ish sort of way, but for guerilla warefare—in which the enemy rarely has an air force of his own with which to dogfight—they are often not the tool for the job. Pilotless drones can help fill the gap. Sometimes there is no substitute for having a pilot on the scene, however, so modern air forces are starting to turn to a technology from the yesteryear of flying: the turboprop.

So-called light-attack turboprops are cheap both to build and to fly. A fighter jet can cost $80m. By contrast the 208B Caravan, a light-attack turboprop made by Cessna, costs barely $2m. It also costs as little as $500 a hour to run when it is in the air, compared with $10,000 or more for a fighter jet. And, unlike jets, turboprops can use roads and fields for takeoff and landing.

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Al Qaeda: The Next Afghanistan–Somalia, Yemen, Or Both?

Jul 14

Posted by Matt in Afghanistan, Africa, Al Qaeda, Somalia, Yemen | No Comments

     It is important to take a step back sometimes, and get a feel for the world wide situation with this enemy we are fighting.  Afghanistan or Pakistan is not the only game in town, and what I wanted to do below is put up some current significant events that highlight how global this war is.

     A couple of things that came to mind while reading this stuff.  Imagine if both Yemen and Somalia fell to these Al Qaeda backed groups, and these countries became sanctuaries for AQ?  You would have two Islamic extremist states who would control both sides of the Gulf of Aden and turn that sucker into a gauntlet for piracy or whatever.  But I would even go as far as to say that the piracy we are now familiar with, would instead transition into something else.  We would see these pirates turn into ‘jihadist privateers’, and extremists would certainly profit from these ventures.

     The reason I say this is that both countries would be under the control of these extremists, and therefore any activity that happens in those countries under their watch, would be done with their blessing. Either directly or indirectly, they would profit from this piracy. Of course their form of the letter of marque would probably be the fatwa, but either way, I speculate that these extremists will not stop the activity.  They will be in a better position to control it and profit from this activity.

     Worse yet, obtaining ships and hostages is exactly the kind of jihadist ‘ammo’ that these guys would like. But the really big money maker for jihad, will be the transportation of drugs, guns, and people.  If Yemen and Somalia are both unstable or are under control of these extremists, this kind of money making activities will increase, and further help to fund Al Qaeda’s war against the west. They would have operating bases to train at, and they could also do business with drug cartels for transport or even storage–all for a price. Jihad requires funding, and having control of these countries would be key. Strategically speaking, it is a great move for Al Qaeda to focus on taking Yemen and Somalia.

     So what does all of this mean for our industry or for the current war effort?  Good question.  I think for our industry, we will expect to see an increased demand for armed security contractors on ships. Navies will soon reduce their costly patrols or escorts, and continue to advise the shipping industry to take on the costs of securing their own vessels.  We will still see anti-piracy operations out there, but I just don’t see it being enough to cover the kind of area we are talking about. Cost and operational scope comes to mind, and the world’s navies need private industry.  Private industry still needs the power and capabilities of those navies to come to their rescue if at a point of being overwhelmed, but still, the ocean is just too massive for the world’s navies to be every where and all at once.

     We will also see more African and Middle Eastern training opportunities for companies.  The ACOTA program is just one example, and training the various African nations who are most impacted by islamic extremists will be a big focus.  DynCorp is already training Ugandan troops before they ship out to Somalia.

     As for direct involvement, who knows?  Somalia is one of those places that absolutely needs security and stability, and it takes some serious muscle to do that.  I do not think the AU is the best force for the job, because the UN has no intention of using that army to do what it needs to do–and that is go on the offense.  Instead the AU is just sitting there and dying, while Al Shabab and others are attacking them daily. What a waste of manpower and equipment.

     I also think that it is interesting that Saudi Arabia has depended upon the company Vinnell Arabia for training up the SANG all these years, and that if Yemen turns into an ‘Afghanistan’ in the region, Saudi forces will have their hands full with dealing with terrorists pouring over the borders.  Some of that high dollar training they have been getting from Vinnell will be quite handy.

     For places like Somalia though, I say either send in a professional state sponsored army, or contract with a private military company, and give them the mission to clear and hold Somalia.(bring in contractors and the like for the build portion) And if a company like Executive Outcomes can be as successful as they were in places like Sierra Leon or Anglola, with the limited man power and resources they had, then I see no reason why a company today could not produce the same results if they followed the EO model.

     A company like Xe could put together a force that would absolutely be capable and willing to do a job like this. And now that the US government has made it clear that it fully supports and embraces the capabilities of companies like Xe for work in war zones, then I just don’t see how they are not good enough for stopping the Al Shabab in Somalia, or for battling extremists in Yemen?

     Or we can watch as those countries fall to extremists, and the neighbors to these countries pay the price.  Worse yet, terrorists from these sanctuaries span out even further into the west to conduct martyrdom missions and kill innocent people. -Matt

Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan?

New al-Qaida threat: Somali group claims blasts

Who is al-Shabab? Somali terror army extends reach

Nigerian sect leader praises al Qaeda, warns US

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Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan?

By ROBERT F. WORTH

July 6, 2010

Just before dawn on Dec. 24, an American cruise missile soared high over the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula, arced down toward the dark mountains above the Rafadh Valley in Yemen’s Shabwa province and found its mark, crashing into a small stone house on a hillside where five young men were sleeping. Half a mile away, a 27-year-old Yemeni tribesman named Ali Muhammad Ahmed was awakened by the sound. Stumbling out of bed, he quickly dressed, slung his AK-47 over his shoulder and climbed down a footpath to the valley that shelters his village, two hours from the nearest paved road. He already sensed what had happened. A week earlier, an American airstrike killed dozens of people in a neighboring province as part of an expanded campaign against Al Qaeda militants. (Although the U.S. military has acknowledged playing a role in the airstrikes, it has never publicly confirmed that it fired the missiles.)

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