[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,...).

[AdmSmith]

Putin’s Chef Preps Soldiers for Final Assault on Syrian Rebels

Grouped into tank-equipped units of 50 men each and backed by Russian air power, the plan is for these soldiers to work with uniformed Syrian forces, first to establish escape corridors for civilians, one of the people said. Then they’ll engage in the street-to-street fighting required to clear the heavily populated city of thousands of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, he said. The operation, if it goes ahead, could take months.

Prigozhin didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment via his Concord Catering company. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said only that Russia will act in Idlib “on the basis of agreements” with neighboring Turkey, a leading critic of recent military action in the region.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/06/putins-chef-preps-soldiers-for-final-assault-on-syrian-rebels-a67172