[GZG] Re: RE: 'Realistic' Mercenary TO&E

Hi Eli,

You could look at recent mercenary operations on Earth from the '80's onward
for some ideas. I posted details on a book I had read on modern mercenaries a
couple of months back, one of the operations looked at was Sandlines
(?)
ops in West Africa/Ivory Coast.

Basically, the unit deployed (battalion + from memory) had its own
freighter to carry heavy gear (how this was hired was not gone into but one
assumes
the local government footed the bill - they were paying in mineral
concessions to a holding company which just happened to be part of the same
organization the 'security' company belonged to so one of the 1st missions the
mercs had was to drive out the rebels holding the concession! The mercs seemed
to have transport helicopters and limited gunship helicopter support as part
of their own TO&E, but they also subcontracted a fighter aircraft unit for air
support. This aircraft unit was Ukrainian and had just finished a tour under
contract for Eritrea! Whether the Ukrainians were

still serving members of the Ukrainian military or on 'leave' wasn't stated in
the book.

Reminds me that NZ defense force personal during the late 70's and early

80's sometimes went on extended 'leave' or 'resigned' briefly and then would
pop up in places like Rhodesia for a period of time, before suddenly
reappearing in the NZ army. Wasn't official policy but served to keep a

cadre of combat vets on the books, one assumes.

In a time of not-war between the NAC and ESU, for instance, and given
that star travel is reasonably affordable, I would suspect there would
possibly be any number of dirty little bush wars going on, and any number of
reservists, holidaying regulars and wannabes available for hire.

In times of peace, militaries get down sized. If someone with an inside

line (a lot of ex US army senior officers became security consultants during
the 90's) can locate bored, experienced soldiers, and arrange for some kit to
become army surplus, then you have the makings of a little private army (like
the Contras) that can be used to advance foreign policy in a deniable way.

For other Star Merc fiction, check out the early Dorsai books by Gordon
R.
Dickson - 'Dorsai!', 'Lost Dorsai', 'Tactics of Mistake', and 'Soldier,
Ask Not'. The latter has a fair bit on the Friendlies, lowish tech, wall of

crap, troops from worlds where the major export was cannon fodder.

I've used a load of Eureka Miniatures 15mm WWII Chinese as ESU
militia/line
troops. They look sufficiently different for people not to get hung up on
the 'but they look like Germans/Russians/whatever' thing.  They mix well

with Afrika Korp HMGs (I modded the MGs a bit, adding a big drum power
pack/magazine thing) as the Chinese HMGs look too like WWI Vickers.  The

submachine gunners look a bit like they're armed with some sort of bullpup
type weapon, so that was good. Regards

David
> [quoted text omitted]
<snip>
> I've actually been eyeballing some Peter Pig WW2 Germans as potential