Hey Team Room members, here is a preview of something I am working on right now.  I’m still waiting on some additional information so this is still a work in progress.  Please keep this on the down low until I publish it on SOFREP. -Jack

Much has been made of the threat of piracy over the last several years. Considering that piracy predates terrorism by hundreds of years it strikes many of us in the Special Operations community as absurd that US and international law has had such difficultly in coping with the piracy issue off the coast of the horn of Africa and beyond.

The rise of the Private Military Company and private security contractors (often bemoaned by the same politicians who make use of their services or use them as proxies while keeping their hands clean) is something that simply is not going away. With ships valued at hundreds of millions of dollars with equally valuable cargo on board, it only makes sense to take on a few guns for hire when these commercial vessels travel through the maritime choke points frequented by pirates.

At this time perhaps as much as 80% of the maritime security industry is dominated by British companies, well over a hundred of them although one of the larger ones is called Control Risk. The British have a bit of home field advantage as many of their maritime concerns are focused around former colonies, such as Oman, where the Brits have deep historical and institutional ties. About 10% of the market is in the hands of American companies. These companies include Nexus Solutions run by a former US Marine and based out of Washington DC, Espada out of San Antonio, Trident Group run by a group of former SEALs, and SeaGuard.