[AdmSmith]

Wagner: A closer look at Russian private security and military enterprise.

Wagner partners with the Russian military for issues of transportation and logistics, similarly to their western counterparts. However, in both Ukraine and Syria members of Wagner served at times to augment Russian and/or local forces or have served as an “elite infantry“, in direct-action operations, not merely as advisors or trainers. Wagner is also reported to suffer unusually high numbers of casualties for a PMC, which suggests that in some theaters Wagner serves in primarily a combat role, rather than less hazardous non-combat tasks like training and advising.

In CAR and perhaps in Libya, Wagner’s primary mission appears to be the extraction of mineral wealth, securing arms deals, and training local specialist forces, rather than pursuing discernable foreign policy objectives in line with those of their country of origin. This differentiation is important when considering the role of the aforementioned western PMCs, who typically do not operate as independently as Wagner seems to, but are more closely bound to national objectives.

https://www.offiziere.ch/?p=34979

[familyop]

"Wagner: A closer look at Russian private security and military enterprise."

Going back to the early 1970s, men without prior combat-focused training who joined mercenary companies were most often poorly trained. Good training is expensive, so governments like ours tend to do it best. Men with much prior combat-focused training from such governments tend to have the best survivability.

Those who survive about two months' worth of patrols with frequent firefights tend to live much longer. Recruits who have not been previously trained for light combat specialties (like infantry) in armies like that of the U.S. also tend to be captured much more easily (ammunition expenditures, lack of desire to move under fire,...).