Pentagon prepares to contract for privatized flying service to fly US special forces throughout Africa. The contract will be up to $50 million.

The contracts will begin this August. Contractors will be expected to carry out medical evacuations during "high risk activities" as well as transporting equipment and commandos from the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara. The planes will operate within the borders of up to 20 different African countries.

Contracting out not only keeps the US military footprint small, but also helps out private entrepreneurs who have always been well fed by the US taxpayer for these military roles

Sometimes, a conventional wisdom is just that, a conventional wisdom, not the truth; at least not the whole truth. As case in point, let's look at the recently published article, "The Other Side of the COIN: Private Security Companies and Counterinsurgency Operations," published by Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

According to the abstract:

" The Iraq War was a watershed regarding the scope of battlefield support by Private Security Companies (PSC). Skeptics soon raised concerns about these new actors being an impediment to the success of the very same operations they are meant to support.

Battered by the scandals surrounding security failures in Benghazi and allegations of criminal activity by diplomats, the State Department is taking over the sensitive process by which background checks are given to locals hired to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest and most expensive diplomatic post in the world.

The process is presently handled by a private security company contracted to the Pentagon. But a recently circulated contract solicitation indicates that the firm conducting the vetting — and the budget for the process — is being shifted to the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

The purpose of the Afghanistan Transportation Network (ATN) is to provide commercial transportation alternatives in the Afghanistan Combined Joint Operations Area (CJOA) while promoting counterinsurgency (COIN) objectives. The overarching ATN plan is to make operations, expansion and partnering decisions in close coordination with US military commanders to ensure the ATN supports their regional COIN objectives. The COIN strategy focuses on reconciliation, reintegration, cooperation with tribal elders and winning the support of Afghans through economic development.

The recipient of the largest government services contract in U.S. history has told military officials it will take another 13 years and half a billion dollars to finish off its work stemming from the Iraq war. This assessment from KBR Inc., which won the $38 billion deal from the U.S. Army way back in 2001, is at the heart of a legal battle between the two sides.

KBR Inc. was responsible for aiding virtually all American military support operations as part of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program - LOGCAP III in Iraq. With the conflict over and the pullout of combat units, the Pentagon sought to alter the terms of payment for the remainder of the contract.

The beleaguered security company that failed for months to hire enough civilian guards to staff gates at U.S. Forces Korea installations is getting the ax.

British-based G4S is being phased out immediately, with a new security firm scheduled to take over all security operations completely by the end of October, the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Pacific Region said in a statement Friday.

The statement offered little information about the change, including why G4S is being replaced, how new provider C&S Corp. was selected or how much C&S will be paid.

An IMCOM Pacific spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment in Honolulu, where it was past business hours when the turnover was announced.

The Afghanistan Security Forces Fund and the Economic Support Fund for Afghanistan have roughly $6 billion in un-obligated money from the past two years, enough to cover that country’s projects through 2014, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). And there’s about $6 billion more in the fiscal 2013 budget. Sequestration is expected to cut the un -obligated 2011 and 2012 money by only 9.4 percent, if it takes effect for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to spend up to $25 million to repair four bridges and widen and resurface 20 miles of roadway in the Gulam Khan Transportation Corridor, which runs through Khost province to the border with Pakistan’s North Waziristan Province, according to a Corps description. Fixing the corridor will increase trade by reducing the travel time between the Afghan capital, Kabul, and Karachi, Pakistan’s chief port city.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan  -- How does the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversee construction in Afghanistan? Who decides the scope, design, location or budget of the projects? The answers to those questions are not simple, neither are the steps involved in bringing projects to completion.

Generally speaking, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is a construction agent, meaning USACE does not determine construction needs or hire construction workers.

The Obama administration is continuing to pursue an agreement with the Iraqi government that would give U.S. defense contractors remaining there beyond 2012 immunity from Iraqi law.

While the approximately 17,000 diplomats and service members working for the State Department are shielded by diplomatic immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law, the thousands of private contractors and mercenaries no longer have such protections, pursuant to the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement.

KABUL - In the spirit of collaboration with the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF), an initiative of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Supreme Group has agreed to support a “proof of concept” convoy to lead the way for the transition of security services from private entities to the Ministry of Interior-controlled APPF.

This inaugural step in the process was completed on October 21, when a contract to move the first 38 fuel tankers under the protection of the APPF was signed by Supreme Group, in conjunction with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) team of advisors. The convoy was then dispatched from the Supreme site in Kabul that evening and arrived safely and without incident in the Ghazni region on October 22nd following an overnight stop in Maidan Shah.

This convoy and its role in establishing the APPF as the manager of safety and security across Afghanistan is an important development. Two Presidential Decrees have called to transfer responsibility for the oversight of security to the federal APPF forces, and Supreme Group is pleased to have played such a key role in the process. Supreme Group is the single largest user of convoy security in Afghanistan and currently contracts more than 6,000 highly-trained Afghan Guards in support of a country-wide supply chain operated across some of the most difficult conditions in the world.

The Pentagon doesn't deny it made major, costly mistakes when it came to service contracting in the first years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Defense leaders say they also learned valuable lessons they want to bake into the military's training and doctrine that will guide contingency operations from now on.

The department was grossly unprepared for the extent to which it would need to rely on service contractors to prosecute the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaders now acknowledge. In part, they blame the fact that the wars lasted much longer than they were supposed to.

But, DoD also says it's clear that the military won't ever go into a contingency operation again without a big contingent of contractors, so it needs to institutionalize contracting expertise into the way it plans operations and trains its people.

CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY TO INCLUDE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BACKGROUND:  This update reports DoD contractor personnel numbers in theater and outlines DoD efforts to improve management of contractors accompanying U.S. forces.  It covers DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Iraq, and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).

KEY POINTS: In 3rd quarter FY 2012, USCENTCOM reported approximately 137,000 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR.  This was approximately a 10.5% decrease from the previous quarter.  The number of contractors outside of Afghanistan and Iraq make up about 11.5% of the total contractor population in the USCENTCOM AOR.  A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:

DoD Contractor Personnel in the USCENTCOM AOR

*Includes DoD contractors supporting U.S. Mission Iraq and/or Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq 

CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY TO INCLUDE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

BACKGROUND:  This update reports DoD contractor personnel numbers in theater and outlines DoD efforts to improve management of contractors accompanying U.S. forces.  It covers DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Iraq, and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).  

KEY POINTS: In 2nd quarter FY 2012, USCENTCOM reported approximately 153,000 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR.  This was approximately a .6% increase from the previous quarter.  The number of contractors outside of Afghanistan and Iraq make up about 16% of the total contractor population in the USCENTCOM AOR.  A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:

DoD Contractor Personnel in the USCENTCOM AOR

*Includes DoD contractors supporting U.S. Mission Iraq and/or Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq

Afghanistan Summary 

• The distribution of contractors in Afghanistan by contracting activity are:

Theater Support - Afghanistan: 20,226  (17%)

LOGCAP: 32,653  (28%)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: 15,222  (13%)

Other:* 49,126  (42%)

Total: 117,227