The fate of Blackwater’s naval ambitions absolutely has a place in discussions of this topic, it’s a prime example of how use of PMCs has to be carefully considered. Sure, there are first-class outfits which will do the job, but once that door is open the danger of a poorly-run PMC getting the chance to thoroughly screw the pooch gets ever greater.

Guardian-GBS isn’t just lower-profile, they’re competent enough to know to Maintain that low profile rather than advertise themselves with press photos of their boat or promo vids on YouTube. Guardian is also smart enough to stick to the contract, even if that means a completely boring cruise across the pirate zone. Blackwater was making noises like they would treat any pirate-related contracts as a Letter of Marque, not something any corporation in the world wants tracking back to them if it goes poorly.

From the looks of it, Maersk is not the only firm to approach the decision carefully. Blackwater wouldn’t be selling their boat at near-fire-sale price if they thought they’d have a shot at other contracts.

Hey, if you have a link to the source of that information, I would like to see it. I have been following the Letter of Marque thing pretty closely, and I have yet to see Blackwater or Xe make any mention of using such a thing.

The major navies could, of course, acquire their own small craft and use them as escorts but that kind of lateral thinking is beyond the imagination of modern admirals, which is why force numbers are in decline. Navies right now are competing to design and build the most perfect ships, not carry out effective operations.

That having been said, I shed no tears for Blackwater and entirely share DS’ contempt for private military units. The worst periods of piracy (and brigandage on land) have coincided with the use of privateers and mercenaries. It’s very easy to romanticize the golden age of freebooters but they were replaced by state armies for very good reasons. What is needed in the Gulf of Aden is better public policy from our State Department and more innovative leadership from our 170 billion-dollar-a-year Navy, not private guns-for-hire.

Spade nailed it…and you.

To turn a phrase and go WAY off topic:

I don’t know Insurance Company X’s cost structure, but I’ll bet it’s hard to compete with the Federal Government Health Plan on a price basis. Stand by for the medical care version of the Tanzanian Navy.

There. I said it. I feel better.

http://www.mschoa.org/FairplayStoryDisplay.aspx?articlename=dn0020100105000016

I don’t know Blackwater’s cost structure, but I’ll bet it is hard to compete with a local naval force on a price basis.

And Admore, just for yer reading pleasure, here’s a nice positive post (one of many)–from just a few days ago! You may have skipped over the post while you perused my place–as the post is not a politically-charged issue or anything…

http://springboarder.blogspot.com/2009/12/meanwhile-5th-grade-class-adopts-ship.html

Pro-tip: More people are apt to read your stuff, and invite you to things (even if they disagree with you) if you don’t come off as a jerk.

Guardian-GBS isn’t just lower-profile, they’re competent enough to know to Maintain that low profile rather than advertise themselves with press photos of their boat or promo vids on YouTube. Guardian is also smart enough to stick to the contract, even if that means a completely boring cruise across the pirate zone. Blackwater was making noises like they would treat any pirate-related contracts as a Letter of Marque, not something any corporation in the world wants tracking back to them if it goes poorly.

From the looks of it, Maersk is not the only firm to approach the decision carefully. Blackwater wouldn’t be selling their boat at near-fire-sale price if they thought they’d have a shot at other contracts.