Just curious…Where do you see the Security Contracting Business in 10 yrs?
According the video game I’m playing right now(Army of Two), contractors will be the new military.
I say bring it on!!
If real life is anything like the game, it’s gonna be sweet. I can’t wait to get me a kick ass bullet-proof mask, and a pimped, gold-plated m16 with a shield on the front.
Are you talking in general or something a little more specific like military security contractors, industrial, corporate, executive protection?
I believe there will always be a need for ppl to provide a service that is either legal as it is now, (politically incorrect to the masses, or that can be funded indirectly by Congress or the military in the future). But, it’s really gonna depend on the political climate and what laws are passed that either hinder or allow their existence.
The need will not go away, contractors are a scale-able disposable resource. Oversightwill greatly increase, pay will greatly go down, the gov will get exactly what they pay for (and consequences of).
Contracting used to be the domain of Tier guys, with great breadth of experience, who could think/act effectively under duress, autonomously, in a wide variety of challenging circumstance. This is clearly not the case now.
With the total #'s required, and the types of bodies being thrown at the manning gaps (just meeting minimum contractual obligations)… there will be more incidents of assclownery & the downward spiral of oversight & incidents will begin. Not to suggest that the conventional US mil or DOS can or does it better. A properly run company can be much more agile in many ways, logistics manning, etc. Esp. in selecting proper leadership and key players(& shit-canning them when they prove incapable), where Gov/Mil personell are entrenched and it’s damn near impossible to get rid of buffoons in linchpin roles.
Bottomline, as in all things, the customer will get what it pays for. And, being the government all decisions will be reactionary & shortsighted… the req’d #'s won’t go away for a couple years, the pay & quality slide has long since begun.
I think it is a boom industry that is fading. With prospects of a Dem/left govt added to an already leftist, estrogen charged international atmosphere - I think it would be a dumb move 10 years from now. As stated above, the salary will not be so hot, co-workers will probably not be of the highest proficiency and the odds of getting thrown under the bus will be much higher.
Coble,
The biz started to shrink a few years ago. There are many companys that do not exist anymore. The trend is towards large companies that can provide a variety of services. I.E. Blackwater: security, K9, fixed and rotary wings, Intel, training, etc.
The first time I saw former military contractors was in Haiti in '95 making 5 bills a day. Many or most SCs now are making around 5 bills a day.
As mentioned, the quality of personnel is sliding with a corresponding increase in administrative policy responses. Meaning people are going home for stupid reasons. While at the same time there is a shortage.
I don’t expect many opportunities to be available after the next Potus election. Then the biz should shrink quickly.
Pyramid rock on North beach, K-bay - an old play ground.
A lot of these companies are disappearing…Recently the severed fingers of 5 captured contractors from Crescent Security were delivered to US authorities in Iraq…Crescent Security however, no longer exists. Crescent Security also was the subject of several investigations while in Iraq. Crescent Security didn’t receive the attention that a larger company like Blackwater did though. The reason I started this post was I just found it interesting that all these companies seemed to appear and contracting was big business and there was a lot of appeal for members of the Military to leave Active Duty to get into it and Is it paying off? Also I wanted to hear from anyone out there doing any contract work past and present…and any advice, suggestions, or input they may have.
I have been a security contractor since March of 04 here in Iraq. The average daily pay is not $500, but much less. This is the first year that I actually took a pay cut.
The quality of the contractors is much improved since the early days. I look after a US Army General, and I do see this type of work being cut back in the future. Site security will continue to be a big part of it though.
Work in Iraq will continue to be good for at least 3-5 years as long as we continue to offer reconstruction help. Africa may be the future for contracting work.
Hell, last year one CEO was telling his employees that they were very close to getting a contract to go into Lebanon and clean out the bad guys.
The security contract field is kind of divided into two distinct groups, you have those with military experience and those with law enforcement experience.
I feel that there will always be a need for both on one level or another but the two have very different roles.
The military guys tend to work close to their MOS while the LE guys tend to end up with training gigs working with area LE. Basically an overseas FTO…
I can’t imagine what type of idiot (& what kind of corporate cluster fuck that would tolerate such a tool) would be so delusional as to think his people were going to “clean up” a soveriegn country.
Besides the obvious lack of awareness of the ground truth: 1)that they would get retarded spanked, as a well equiped army *with air power… recently has 2) having US persons on the ground is politically intolerable, these types of actions are clearly in the government domain.
As far as pay… well your pedigree & experience have a lot to do with it. If you think “quality is getting better” and are over there for 5/day or less…? your not affiliated with a premium contract.
There is no one who can make an informed commentary on the future of IC work. The very nature of it is 90-180 day billing cycles, sometimes longer. If there was stability in the work, the Co’s would use employees
My feelings are mixed on the issue.
On one hand, I think it is a good thing to have another force supplement the military.
On the other hand, my SHTF mindset tells me that the government WILL abuse these contractors in ways such as starting proxy wars and unconstitutional wars, and the typical “confiscate your guns” scenario, to name a few.