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Home > Meet 11 of the Private Defense Contractors That Are Raking It in from
the Drone War
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Meet 11 of the Private Defense Contractors That Are Raking It in from the
Drone War
By Pratap Chatterjee [1] / CorpWatch [2]
August 5, 2015
Hundreds of private sector intelligence analysts are being paid to review
surveillance footage from U.S. military drones [3] in Central Asia and the
Middle East, according to a new report from the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism.
Bureau reporters Crofton Black and Abigail Fielding-Smith name eleven
companies that have won hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to plug
a shortage in personnel needed to analyze the thousands of hours of
streaming video gathered daily from the remotely piloted aircraft that hover
over war zones around the world: Advanced Concepts Enterprises, BAE Systems,
Booz Allen [4] Hamilton, General Dynamics, Intrepid Solutions, L-3
Communications, MacAulay-Brown, SAIC, Transvoyant, Worldwide Language
Resources and Zel Technologies. (see details below)
"Contractors are used to fill the gap to give enough manpower to provide
flexibility necessary for military to do things like take leave," one
analyst who worked with the Air Force at Hurlburt Field airbase in Florida,
told the Bureau.
Private companies have been providing support for military intelligence for
many years. Ever since CACI's role in supplying interrogators at Abu Ghraib
came to light in 2004 (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=10828 [5]),
CorpWatch has regularly documented dozens of companies likeBAE Systems [6],
Booz Allen Hamilton [7], L-3 Communications [8] and SAIC [9] that have
provided such services to the federal government ranging from surveillance
equipment and weapons to propaganda experts and imagery analysts.
Today, these contractors are flocking to the drone business, which has
become the linchpin of President Barack Obama's military strategy, just as
the ground war has wound down. Although the Central Intelligence Agency has
garnered most of the media attention for targeted killing delivered by
drones in countries like Pakistan and Yemen, the bulk of the so-called "War
on Terror" is really conducted by U.S. Air Force pilots and support
personnel who fly 65 round-the-clock "combat air patrols" of Global Hawk,
Predator and Reaper drones around the world from faraway locations.
Each of these patrols, which involve three to four aircraft, require as many
as 186 individuals who staff a complex and global system. Typically pilots
and camera operators work out of bases like Creech in Nevada, while
maintenance crews work in friendly countries like Afghanistan and Saudi
Arabia. Video analysts work out of military bases like California and
Florida while military lawyers who are required to approve strike decisions
are stationed at the Al-Udeid base in Qatar.
Imagery analysts who review video footage are among the lowest ranked among
the personnel who work in the drone war hierarchy. Typically these are entry
level "airmen" who only need a high school diploma and eleven months of
military training. The drone pilots are officers with undergraduate degrees
and more years of training.
Both airmen and officers become eligible to work as private contractors
after they complete their military service, where they can be paid twice as
much for the same work, and get the added bonus of picking their hours and
work locations. (The Air Force Times estimates that drone maintenance pilots
stationed overseas who work for companies like Raytheon can make as much as
$225,000 a year [10]) Since all the initial training and the security
clearances are provided by the military, all the contractors are required to
do is recruit Air Force veterans and then put them on their payrolls.
By all accounts, the private contractors do not take part in making
decisions as to who to kill nor are they allowed to fire missiles.
But contractors do sometimes play a key role in military missions by the
very nature of their analytical work. In 2010, Major General Timothy McHale
identified an SAIC [11] staffer who led a team of imagery analysts to track
three vehicles in Daikundi province, Afghanistan. The information provided
by these analysts led to some two dozen people being killed but later
investigations would reveal that none of the people on board the vehicles
were militants.
List of Imagery Analyst Contractors
Advanced Concepts Enterprises: Sub-contractor to MacAulay-Brown (See here
[12])
BAE Systems (No contract identified. However the company identifies details
here [13])
Booz Allen Hamilton (See here [14])
General Dynamics (See here [15])
Intrepid Solutions: Won a five year contract with U.S. Army's Intelligence
and Security Command in 2012 (See here [16])
L-3 Communications: Won a $155 million contract in 2010 to provide services
to the U.S. Special Operations Command for five years. (See here [17])
MacAulay-Brown: Won a $60 million contract in 2011 to provide 187 analysts
to U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command for three years. (See here
[18], and here [19], and here [20])
SAIC: Won a 2007 contract to provide 202 analysts to the U.S. Air Force
Special Operations Command (See here [21])
Transvoyant: Won a $49 million five year contract with the U.S. Marine Corps
(See here [22])
Worldwide Language Resources: Won a $1 million 2010 contract with the U.S.
Army. (See here [23])
Zel Technologies provides over 100 imagery analsyts to the U.S. Air Force
Special Operations Command (See here [24])
Pratap Chatterjee is managing editor of CorpWatch [2] and the author of
Halliburton's Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized
the Way America Makes War [25] (Nation Books, 2009).
.
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/meet-11-private-defense-contractor
s-are-raking-it-drone-war
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/pratap-chatterjee
[2] http://www.corpwatch.org
[3]
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2015/07/30/reaping-the-rewards-how-pri
vate-sector-is-cashing-in-on-pentagons-insatiable-demand-for-drone-war-intel
ligence/
[4] http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/booz_allen
[5] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=10828
[6] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008
[7] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14963
[8] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13993
[9] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9508
[10]
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/04/21/drone-pilot-compensat
ion/25837209/
[11] http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/science_applications_international_corp
[12] http://www.ur-aces.com/government-operations.html
[13] http://www.baesystems.com/article/BAES_167266/isr-capabilities
[14]
http://careers.boozallen.com/job/Dayton-Full-Motion-Video-%28FMV%29Wide-Area
-Motion-Imagery-%28WAMI%29-Analyst-Job-OH-45390/226459600/
[15]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2183984-m67854-11-c-7020-general-dyn
amics-bridge-foi.html
[16]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2183889-intrepid-w911w512c0005.html
[17]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170472-h92222-10-c-0005-imagery-ana
lyst-services.html
[18]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170474-fa0021-11-f-0005macb.html
[19]
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2012/01/30/466506/244043/en/MacAulay-B
rown-Awarded-75-Million-Contract-by-Air-Force-Special-Operations-Command-to-
Provide-Greater-Situational-Awareness-to-the-Warfighter.html
[20]
http://www.macb.com/index.php/macb-awarded-31m-af-special-operations-command
-contract-option/
[21]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170469-ja-fa0021-11-c-0002-ocr.html
[22]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170473-m67854-12-d-7000-portal-dyna
mics-transvoyant-foi.html
[23]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170471-r-intelligence-services-w52p
1j10r0064.html
[24]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2170470-fa002115f0002-zel-foi-ocr.ht
ml
[25] http://www.powells.com/partner/32513/biblio/9781568583921
[26] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Meet 11 of the Private
Defense Contractors That Are Raking It in from the Drone War
[27] http://www.alternet.org/
[28] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
