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The Royal Kingston United Services Institute held a panel discussion last May on contractor support for the Canadian Forces. The panel included a senior officer from a unit that employs contractors and senior executives from two firms that provide contractor support to the CF: PAE Government Services and Calian Technology. The aim was to inform RKUSI members on the extent of contractor support needed to support CF activities and, perhaps to outline opportunities for retired CF members.
On the panel were LCol Dennis Hartnett, Deputy Commandant Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College (CLFCSC); Ernest B. Beno, BGen (Ret), senior consultant focused on Canada, UN and NATO for PAE Government Services; and Charles S. Oliviero, LCol (Ret) with Calian Technology as Manager in the Army Simulation Centre.
Contractor support to the military includes the provision of goods and services at arms length, such as military equipment, turn key construction projects, bulk food, computer software and providing direct support to military operations. Providing direct support to military operations, that is, replacing military personnel with contractors is as old as warfare itself. During the Middle Ages some states contracted entire armies, most notably the armies led by Generals Albrecht Wallenstein and Johann Tilly during the Thirty Years War. Today, we would call such troops mercenaries.
Later, the services of specialists such as engineers and gunners were contracted. During the Napoleonic Wars, farmers with their carts were contracted to haul artillery ammunition and forage. During the American Civil War, railways and railway employees were contracted by both North and South to move military units and supplies.
During the Second World War and Korea, the allies used contractors in rear areas, but on occasion they engaged in combat, such as during the defence of Wake Island in the Pacific. However, it was the War in Vietnam that saw the rebirth of contracted direct support to the military. In Vietnam, like the environment in which the CF operates today, there were no rear areas. US Department of Defence (DOD) contractors were used in combat service support and combat support roles and in some cases had to defend themselves. Since the Vietnam War, the use of contractors to replace soldiers has evolved at a rapid rate, both in the CF and with our allies.
Operation Desert Storm saw
more than 9,500 contractors deployed
throughout the Gulf region
in direct support of coalition operations.
Canada began using contractor
support in Bosnia to replace military
personnel in logistics roles,
and now uses contractors to provide
logistics and construction engineering
support in Afghanistan.
In the CF contractors are used for traditional military roles such as training, doctrine writing, engineering, logistics, air and sea lift, medical support, security and food services. Contractor personnel can be divided into two types: those with skills found in the civilian world (i.e. computer analysts, clerks and construction workers) and those with skills where military training and experience are required, but wearing a uniform is not (i.e. staff officers, doctrine writers, instructors and exercise support personnel, or personnel operating in areas where survival skills learned from military service are essential).
The use of contractor support in the CF has risen exponentially for six reasons:
— The RKUSI BULLETIN 2 May 2006, Kingston, Ont.
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