The business of private military companies (PMCs) spans everything from armed guards hired by companies in dangerous places to soldiers of fortune who fight in wars. Many are drawn from the same pool: ex-soldiers, often special forces. The industry has expanded in recent decades as governments have trimmed their armed forces and private demand has grown.
The market is divided between well-capitalised firms, backed by venture capital and private wealth, and more precarious outfits that lie "dormant" until a big contract turns up, at which point they are often bought by one of the big beasts. The industry is "atomised", according to Sean McFate of the National Defence University in Washington, DC, who divides PMCs into three "command languages": an English-speaking cluster drawn mostly from America, Europe and other Anglophone countries; Russian-speakers (led by the Wagner Group and its successor, the Africa Corps); and a Spanish-speaking group of former special-forces operatives from Latin America, Colombia in particular, often trained by America's elite Green Berets.
With governments struggling to recruit soldiers, PMCs provide an inexpensive substitute, in part because they do not require the same training, pensions and benefits. One calculation put an American contractor at about seven times cheaper than a regular soldier, and a British mercenary at ten times cheaper. Colombian fighters are about a quarter of the price of their Western counterparts. For those signing up, the pay can look appealing compared with government service. Russian mercenaries in Ukraine were at one point said to be paid twice as much as regular soldiers.
Half a dozen large private-security firms have "corporate structures", including departments for legal advice, contracting and personnel. They include America's Constellis ($1.4bn in revenue in 2024, over 12,700 employees) and Canada's GardaWorld, which operates in dozens of countries. PMC-type work is only a sliver of their business.
In the past decade or so more PMCs have offered what Ulrich Petersohn of the University of Liverpool calls "combat solutions". At one time there were more than 50,000 commercial operators in Ukraine, mostly low-skilled and on the Russian side, largely to obviate the need for a formal draft. Colombian mercenaries are among those fighting for Ukraine.
From 1980 to 2016, the presence of mercenaries was associated with a 39% lower rate of civilian "victimisation", according to Petersohn's research. PMCs based in democratic countries were associated with a 66% lower rate than firms from non-democracies. Yet Western firms have had their share of controversies: Erik Prince's Blackwater killed 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007, and his later venture, the Frontier Services Group, was subject to American sanctions in 2023 for training Chinese military pilots.
The American government is PMCs' biggest customer in the West.
The industry expects another boom from reconstruction in Ukraine, much as the early 2000s saw a boom from Iraq. The Ukraine war will produce thousands of hardened soldiers versed in the latest technology, such as strike drones. Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is considering establishing its own PMCs. Tim Spicer, a former British Army officer who founded both Aegis and Sandline International, two PMCs, predicts: "The problems that one encountered in the reconstruction in Iraq will be hugely magnified in Ukraine."
Colombia has become a major exporter of armed labour. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least 3,000 Colombians have passed through the country, fighting on both sides, making them one of the largest foreign contingents. Others have turned up in Sudan's civil war or been recruited by Mexican gangs. Perhaps 10,000 Colombians are involved in foreign conflicts. Most are former soldiers, in demand because of decades of experience fighting rebel groups and familiarity with NATO-standard weapons. Colombian fighters cost roughly a quarter of their Western counterparts.
Recruitment is often informal, conducted through social media and messaging apps, where claims about pay, insurance and conditions are invariably exaggerated. Early recruitment waves for the United Arab Emirates in the early 2010s ran through relatively professional channels; today many recruits are dropouts or even civilians. Casualty rates in Ukraine are high: Colombians are frequently deployed to a front line dominated by drones and heavy artillery, a battlefield very different from Colombia's internal conflict. Insurance payments may be conditional on identifying and recovering a body.
In late 2025 Colombia ratified the United Nations' anti-mercenary convention, but the impact is likely to be limited as most countries that hire mercenaries have not signed it. Much of the trade runs through private firms that avoid the mercenary label by describing combat roles as "security" or "training".
If you think the pen is mightier than the sword, the next time someone pulls out a sword I'd like to see you get up there with your Bic.