Blackwater Worldwide, a provider of security and security training for military, police, and other government agencies, recently tried to build a military training complex in rural east San Diego County. Plans included live firing ranges, helicopter facilities, and an urban combat simulation area. The project drew the ire of local residents, environmental activists, U.S. Representative Bob Filner (D-CA), and a gaggle of peace activists.
More recently, the company announced plans for an indoor training facility in Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border. That project drew the anger of San Diego city officials, local residents and, of course, the usual assortment of anti-military activists. Blackwater obtained a federal court order allowing it to operate the facility, which the U.S. Navy said was needed to provide small arms training. The company claimed the city was in noncompliance with that order, holding up a final permit and not allowing part of the project, including a ship simulator, to be built. A company attorney said the city's chief building official placed 64 conditions on the permit, including wheelchair access.
Public reaction to the projects and to the company was generally hostile. Critics maintained that the Navy didn't need Blackwater to train its personnel and that the services should conduct security and small arms training themselves. These critics are out of touch with what is involved in providing training and logistics support to the armed forces today. The fact is, the uniformed services are no longer staffed to provide all of it and must rely heavily on civilian contractor support.
The armed forces have changed since the days when the draft provided an abundance of relatively inexpensive manpower. With the All-Volunteer Force, many labor-intensive, non-operational duties have been reduced, eliminated, or civilianized, including not only many logistical and training functions, but some traditional roles as well.
For example, the Navy's deployable fleet now consists of only 279 ships, well below recent targets. One reason, besides insufficient new ship procurement, is that vessels such as oilers, stores ships, ammunition ships, and other underway replenishment and cargo ships that were crewed by active duty personnel are now crewed by civilians. Even the tugs that assist in berthing Navy warships in U.S. ports are civilian-owned and operated.
Many traditional functions, such as seamanship, shiphandling, and navigation training, have been contracted out to civilian companies. The reason is simple. The smaller, leaner Navy does not have sufficient experienced officers who can be spared from operational duties to conduct such training. I teach shiphandling and seamanship as a part-time instructor employed by L-3 Communications, a company under contract to the Navy to provide such training at ship simulators and classrooms at various naval installations. The company hires retired naval officers with multiple ship command experience to design and deliver this training.
Blackwater, founded by former Navy SEALs, trains more than 40,000 people a year for the U.S. and foreign militaries, police, and other agencies. It currently is the U.S. State Department's largest private security contractor, providing security for the U.S. embassy in Iraq and for civilian diplomats. Like Halliburton, it also provides a variety of support services for the U.S. military that are essential to its mission and which the armed forces are not staffed to provide themselves.
It makes sense to use civilian contractors who largely employ experienced ex-service members whose specialized skills, prior military training, and familiarity with military culture and organization would otherwise be lost to the armed forces. Their use can free combat-trained personnel for more critical operational roles.
Critics invariably demonize defense contractors like Blackwater and Halliburton, but the fact remains that contractor services are essential in an all-volunteer military posture. The constraints on allowed numbers of expensive, operationally trained personnel and the demands on them to operate sophisticated weapon systems, sensors, and platforms under the current and foreseeable high operational tempo, preclude their use in support roles that can readily be civilianized. Supporting the troops means, among other things, allowing them to receive the training they need to do their jobs.