Feral Jundi

Friday, April 16, 2010

Afghanistan: Why Private Guards Are Crucial To The Afghanistan Mission

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:24 AM

    This came from the Times Online, and I was kind of surprised they used the word ‘guard’ as opposed to ‘mercenary’ in the title.  I was even more surprised that this was an article describing how important we are to the mission in Afghanistan.  You just don’t hear that kind of language in the media, and it is refreshing to hear. It is a realist point of view, and it is definitely a respectful point of view.

    There are more contractors than soldiers in Afghanistan, and we have our deaths and injuries too.  It’s nice to hear that someone in the media actually recognizes our contribution and importance to the mission. –Matt

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Why private guards are crucial to the Afghanistan mission

April 16, 2010

Michael Evans

Western contractors, whose numbers have proliferated in Afghanistan in recent years, are as much in the front line as the military because of the constant threat of suicide bombers.

The most vulnerable among them are security guards, working for private companies such as the British ArmorGroup International. They can be seen standing sentry outside every base, every embassy, and protecting diplomats, aid officials and visiting VIPs. The operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have provided tens of thousands of jobs for former special forces soldiers and other military and law enforcement personnel.

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Mexico: Drug Cartels Using IEDs

Filed under: Industry Talk,Law Enforcement,Mexico — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:10 AM

   This was expected.  I suspect the learning curve will be especially short do to all the available information and examples for use out there.  The thing to watch here is the possibility of Mexico tapping into private industry in order to deal with this threat.  IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a need for specialists in the private industry, and of course those same folks will probably be called upon by Mexico through the Merida Initiative. The UAV industry will definitely be called upon for this latest phase of the drug war as well.

   The second story below that ties into the whole IED thing, is cellphones.(Thanks to Matt for sending me this) Mexico is now forcing everyone that has a phone, to register their identity with the cell company/government.  I am sure the cartels will find ways around this, but at least it is a start.  The big one here to remember is when cartels start using cellphones for IED triggering, much like insurgents have done in Iraq or Afghanistan, that is when it will be vital to have a handle on cellphone IDs. Or at least the forensics for this stuff, as well as tracking signals.

   That and tips that come in via cellphone text, can be better confirmed based on this registration. That whole ‘garbage in, garbage out’ HUMINT concept is one area that the Mexican government would probably like to clean up for their SMS strategy in their war. –Matt

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Mexican Cartels Using IEDs

4/09/2010

AUSTIN – The Mexican military seized improvised explosive devices just miles from the Valley.  The IEDs (or roadside bombs) are the same weapons terrorists use in the Middle East.

The homemade explosives can be sophisticated or crude.  They’re often deadly.  They’ve killed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the weapons are also in the hands of the drug cartels in Mexico.

On March 30, more than 50 cartel members attacked the Mexican military in Matamoros and Reynosa.  Eighteen people died.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Afghanistan: Afghan IEDs Show Rapid Adaptation

Filed under: Afghanistan,DIY,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 2:09 AM

   Mr. Grant put together a great summation of the research done on IED’s.  Bottom line, today’s booger eaters throughout the world are learning to make this stuff faster than their other booger eater predecessors. That is the down side of the internet and open source media.  Everyone can play bomb maker these days.

   There are some down sides to this for the enemy.  It still takes skill and experience to safely make these things, and this statistic below does not show how many ‘oops’ deaths have been caused by this explosion of open source IED manufacturing.  A prime example is the Frontline video on the Taliban, which showed this beautifully.

   One thing that bothers me about this, is that contractors continue to be killed by this stuff and there really isn’t an effort focused on protecting them like there is with the military.  Is this a case where it is every company for itself, or should there be an effort to coordinate the civilian operations or create a JIEDDO group for contractors so we can work to minimize our deaths as well? The irony is that contractors are used in this organization, but they really don’t do much to help out contractors.  Has anyone from JIEDDO talked with any of the expat companies to go over IED survival or the latest counter measures? Or how about collect information from contractors, to add to the matrix being set up at your JKnIFE shops?

   Personally, I know the answer to this question. The military could care less. So companies adapt and they have their own ways of learning how to deal with IEDs.  Everyone talks with everyone out there, and after a few hits on your company, guys really start focusing on and refining countermeasures for IEDs.  Some companies can afford all the cool gadgets to stop or detect this stuff, where others have to resort to other cheaper methods. Or you get some of the local national companies that just take the hits, and could care less about armor or gadgets–partly do to cost and partly do to a lack of any regulation for such a thing.  With that said, it would still be cool to hear about JIEDDO or someone similar address the issues that contractors face on the road. (by the way, check out their FB page here)  Contractors after all are bringing in the food, ammo, water, fuel, and everything else that the military needs to wage war, and with a little help we might actually get more of that stuff to the military in one piece. Not to mention save a few of those lowly contractor lives. –Matt 

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Afghan IEDs Show Rapid Adaptation

By Greg Grant

Monday, April 12th, 2010

At a New America Foundation sponsored event today in Washington, researcher Alec Barker presented an impressive collection of data on IED attacks in southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan that show not only more attacks but an acceleration of bomb making skill and use.

Thoroughly schooled in Iraq, where techniques were refined over the years, the IED bomber guild has increased in size and skill and taken their know-how on the road, compressing the training cycle. The rapid pace of innovation in consumer electronics which are used in most triggering devices, has allowed bombers to jump from one triggering method to another as soon as countermeasures show up in the field. With plenty of targets in the form of foreign troops, Afghan insurgents, as with Iraqi insurgents, are able to continually refine and evolve their tactics.

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Industry Talk: Contractor Deaths Accelerating In Afghanistan As They Outnumber Soldiers

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 1:19 AM

   Lots of meat in this nice little post from Mr. Miller.  All of this is nothing new to those of us in the industry that know the real deal.  But I love posting this stuff and spreading the word to those readers who are looking for information about contractors in this war.  We are making great sacrifices and we outnumber today’s military, yet these facts are also the most ignored element of the war.

   The other factor I want to bring up is that when guys get killed on your contract,  that is the time when you see the great epiphany happen within a small percentage involved.  Those who were in it purely for the money are usually the ones that cut and run after seeing their co-worker blown up in front of them. But for those that are in the game not just for the money but because they actually believe in the cause and truly despise the enemy and all they represent is a different story. For them, to stay and press on is the only option.

   In my view, and from what I have seen in this war, the guys who stay and press on far outnumber that 1 percent of 1 percent who shouldn’t be there in the first place. Years of contracting in war zones, tends to weed out those that do not have the heart for this stuff–which is good. It is also an indicator to me, that there are more contractors driven by something other than profit.

    With that said, no one feels that their life is cheap.  Even soldiers do not ‘volunteer’ for military service.  The military and my industry have families to feed and no one does this work for free.  A soldier joins the military to fight for their country, but they also join the military to get a new and better life than the one they left behind. That includes sign on bonuses, paycheck, medical care, dental, housing allowance, insurance, valuable training or clearances, clothes, food, shelter, tax breaks, education, retirement plan, job security, veterans preference for federal jobs and the GI Bill. Wow, that doesn’t sound like volunteer work to me. lol. (I have actually heard of contractors going back to the military because it was a better deal for them and their family)

   I highly doubt that if the military was to ask a civilian population to work for free as a soldier in a long war such as this, that they could get anyone at all.  How would those soldiers feed their families, or would the military only hire single people with no life?  Yet again, tell me how that would work?  The point is with contractors and soldiers, is that the government and war planners don’t get our pound of flesh for free.  Our service has value, our deaths or injuries have value. At least that is how I view things. –Matt

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Contractor Deaths Accelerating in Afghanistan as They Outnumber Soldiers

by T. Christian Miller

April 14, 2010

A recent Congressional Research Service analysis [1] obtained by ProPublica looked at the number of civilian contractors killed in Afghanistan in recent months. It’s not pretty.

Of the 289 civilians killed since the war began more than eight years ago, 100 have died in just the last six months. That’s a reflection of both growing violence and the importance of the civilians flooding into the country along with troops in response to President Obama’s decision to boost the American presence in Afghanistan.

The latest U.S. Department of Defense numbers show there are actually more civilian contractors on the ground in Afghanistan than there are soldiers. The Pentagon reported [2] 107,292 U.S.-hired civilian workers in Afghanistan as of February 2010, when there were about 78,000 soldiers. This is apparently the first time that contractors have exceeded soldiers by such a large margin.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Industry Talk: Cerberus Agrees To Acquire DynCorp In $1.5 Billion Deal

Filed under: Finance,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:00 AM

   “Private-equity firms are focusing on defense service providers rather than hardware makers, making a calculation that military demand for services will hold up better than hardware in the years ahead,” Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute….

***** 

   This is a big deal.  When a company like Cerberus pulls the trigger on purchasing DynCorp, along with previous purchases of IAP Worldwide Services, Tier 1 Group and Radia Holdings, I tend to take notice.  Cerberus is reading the tea leaves of defense and positioning themselves to own the companies that will matter in the future.  To me, this signifies that defense services, as opposed to defense hardware makers, is the new ‘big sexy’ in defense.

   It also tells me that Cerberus is doing their homework.  I have never been contacted by their people, but I am sure they have been reading through all the strategy papers and forward looking stuff that is produced by all the think tanks to come to their conclusions.  Plus they have two long and expensive wars to study along with the GWOT.  They have made their determinations about the future of defense, and these chess moves say a lot.  This is a recognition of the fact that contractors are a strategic necessity for our future wars, and now investors are catching on.

   The other point on this is DynCorp’s current owner Robert McKeon (Veritas Capital) made a lot of money on this deal. Very impressive return on investment if you ask me. –Matt

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Bill Ballhaus Talks About DynCorp Acquisition

April 12th, 2010

by John Adams

Bill Ballhaus, an ExecutiveBiz 2009 Person to Watch and CEO of security giant DynCorp (NYSE: DCP) shared his thoughts on his firm being purchased by Cerberus for the cool sum of $1.5 billion.

“I believe that under this partnership with Cerberus, DynCorp International will be able to build on our extensive heritage and successful performance to continue to achieve our growth objectives.” He added, “this transaction is a major milestone for DynCorp International’s continued leadership in serving our customers and supporting U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.”

Link to quote here.

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Cerberus Agrees to Acquire DynCorp in $1 Billion Deal

April 12, 2010

By Emily Thornton and Gopal Ratnam

April 12 (Bloomberg) — Cerberus Capital Management LP, the private-equity firm whose takeover of Chrysler Corp. ended in bankruptcy, agreed to buy defense contractor DynCorp International Inc. for about $1 billion.

Cerberus, run by Steve Feinberg, will pay $17.55 a share, Falls Church, Virginia-based DynCorp said today in a statement. The price is 49 percent more than DynCorp’s closing share price on the New York Stock Exchange on April 9. The deal, expected to close in the third or fourth quarter, is valued at $1.5 billion including the assumption of debt.

DynCorp, which helps train Iraqi police and supports the U.S.’s operation of military bases, is at least the fifth government-services investment that Cerberus has made since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Cerberus owns government contractors including IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Tier 1 Group and Radia Holdings Inc.

“Private-equity firms are focusing on defense service providers rather than hardware makers, making a calculation that military demand for services will hold up better than hardware in the years ahead,” Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute, a public policy research group in Arlington, Virginia, said in a telephone interview.

DynCorp rose 48 percent, the most since its initial public offering four years ago, to $17.41 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

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