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Description
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of contractors reached a level unprecedented in U.S. military operations. As of March 31, 2010, the United States deployed 175,000 troops and 207,000 contractors in the war zones. Contractors represented 50 percent of the Department of Defense (DOD) workforce in Iraq and 59 percent in Afghanistan. These numbers include both armed and unarmed contractors. Thus, for the purposes of this paper, the term contractor includes both armed and unarmed personnel unless otherwise specified. The presence of contractors on the battlefield is obviously not a new phenomenon but has dramatically increased from the ratio of 1 contractor to 55 military personnel in Vietnam to 1:1 in the Iraq and 1.43:1 in Afghanistan.
Document Type
Policy Brief
Publication Date
10-2010
Publication
Strategic Forum
Publisher
National Defense University Press
City
Washington, DC
Recommended Citation
Hammes, T.X., "Private Contractors in Conflict Zones: The Good, the Bad, and the Strategic Impact" (2010). Strategic Forums. 60.
https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/strategic-forums/60