This story is written with such an incredibly obnoxious and sensationalist slant, like most things written about Erik Prince and Blackwater. You'd think they had uncovered evidence he was working on contract for ISIS or something.<p>America's use of PMCs is as old, actually older, than the country itself. Many of the issues that led to Blackwater's infamy from their time in Iraq were directly caused by State Department incompetence (I doubt anyone would want to argue that the US State Department is an efficient, well-run, non-politicized entity). Erik Prince is not some crazy Christian zealot out to wage a holy war; if anything, he provided the US government with unique capability that they desperately needed, and things would have probably been far messier if he hadn't been involved in Iraq.<p>I see nothing evil or nefarious about a defense contractor commissioning efficient tactical aircraft for anti-terrorism and civil defense operations. The fact that it's Erik Prince, and the mass media has painted him as the evil overlord that caused all of our problems in Iraq, doesn't make it any different. It would be strange if someone who was highly competent and specialized in defense operations, who had enough money, WASN'T building these sorts of things.<p>Look, I'm mad about what the US government did in Iraq. Everyone should be. We shouldn't have even gone there. But none of this is Erik Prince's fault.<p>Venture capital firms have "scouts," giving them access to deals they'd otherwise overlook or couldn't access. The US defense and intelligence communities have people like Erik Prince.
You let entrepreneurs make billion-dollar fortunes on war, they're going to make wars keep happening.<p>Roosevelt said 'not one war millionaire' from WWII and it's one of the things that made WWII legitimate and successful.<p>Adventurers wearing the mantle of patriotism while enriching themselves and leaving a trail of destruction and hatred that will last for generations are one of the things that made Iraq and Afghanistan a travesty.
A really hope Karma / Murphy deals this guy what he deserves for the crimes that his company has done. Private militarizes armies should NEVER be allowed to exist. These people should never have the right to fight for governments, and should all be put in jail, especially Erik Prince. Also, the government officials that gave them the contracts should also be jailed as traitors to their countries. They are handing over military power to non-government actors to commit crimes without punishment. This needs to be stopped, right now.
Taking a look at his Wikipedia page, it seems like his PR company wrote it. The man is described as a "philantropist" ffs. The history of the page looks a bit suspicious too. There's very few mentions of any kind of criticism or negative statements about him or his ventures.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince</a>
<i>"In May 2014, both Thrush planes were flown from the U.S. across the Atlantic Ocean to Airborne’s hangar."</i><p>How common is it for single engine single seat aircraft to be flown across large oceans? Does the Thrush 510G have sufficient fuel capacity?
Quite a long article; I'm not surprised some of the comments here appear inconsistent with the content.<p>TLDR; A great deal of money (allegedly only $8M, but probably more including facilities and engineering) and effort was put in to acquiring, adapting and testing two conventional, piloted planes as offensive weapons and surveillance platforms. They were riddled with problems including registration and licensing and actual flight problems and have never seen service. Prince let down his clients, raised significant heat from western governments and subsequently his own board members (who then needed to cover their collective asses), but sidestepped these issues by seeking Chinese government investment: his efforts continue.<p>After all of this, from a business perspective one wonders if larger COTS UAV could have been utilized more cost effectively.<p>From a moral perspective, everyone mentioned in this article including the Austrian engineers are culpable.
Strike Commander (1994) was only a couple years off. The game was set in 2011, based around the idea of a small private air force doing various work for various agencies (including the IRS, I believe).<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Commander" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Commander</a>
Why was the title changed from "ECHO PAPA EXPOSED:
Inside Erik Prince’s Treacherous Drive to Build a Private Air Force"<p>Perhaps it should at least be just the subheading?
So a little like SpaceX for NASA?<p>I wonder how international laws and military laws cover PMCs. I also wonder how efficient they really are. I guess they mostly are mostly used for flexibility and lower important objectives.<p>The larger problem is discipline, you can easily have a PMC do some horrible thing or a scandal, which could create international tensions.