Profile: Blackwater Worldwide

Blackwater Worldwide (formerly Blackwater USA; also known simply as Blackwater) is a private security and military company that offers a wide array of services to both government and nongovernment clients.

The company maintains a fleet of heavy-duty military equipment from helicopters to armored vehicles to armed security personnel. It has patented its own military equipment and specialized training techniques and facilities and currently operates under contract for the US government in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

The company was founded in 1997 by former Navy Seals Erik Prince and Gary Jackson.

Locations

• external pageMoyock, North Carolina, UScall_made: Corporate Headquarters, 7000-acre shooting range and driving training facility


• San Diego, California, US: US Navy support and training center


• external pageMount Carroll, Illinois, UScall_made: Various shooting ranges and training facilities


• Currently attempting to open a training facility external pageKootenai County, Idaho, UScall_made

Divisions

• Blackwater Airships LLC: Currently developing a military-styled surveillance and detection RMAP (Remotely Piloted Airship Vehicle) blimp able to "operate for 48 to 60 hours at altitudes from 5,000 to 15,000 feet" and can travel up to 50 knots.


• Blackwater Armor & Targets LLC: Construction and maintenance of target range steel targets.


• Blackwater Canine (K-9): Provides training and deployment of narcotic and explosive sniffing dogs.


• Blackwater Lodge and Training Center: Contains the largest private shooting range and tactical training center in the US, based in Moyock, North Carolina.


• Blackwater Logistics LLC: Covers all logistic services of Blackwater: security guards, dog rental and security equipment. Also includes logistic support (mobility, special cargo transportation, storage and distribution) for ground, air and sea.


• Blackwater Manufacturing: Manufacturing operation that creates Blackwater's patented GRIZZLY Armored Personnel Vehicle (APV).


• Blackwater Maritime: Contains a fleet of naval and maritime equipment and simulation devices for training, support and anti-piracy security.


• Blackwater ProShop: Gift shop located on the Moyock compound selling gun and knife accessories, protective gear, Blackwater logo-clad T-shirts, mugs, plush toys and posters.


• Blackwater Security Consulting: Armed security operations including governmental, diplomat and convoy protection. Also includes combat vehicles ranging from light helicopters (Sikorsky S-92 and MD-530F Little Bird) to cargo helicopters (AB-412) as well as a fleet of armored vehicles (Mamba, Cougar H, and Super Tucano).


• Blackwater Training Corporation: Computer-based and classroom education and training.


• EP Investments LLC

- Aviation Worldwide Services: Conducts special international air transportation through Presidential Airways, Inc for VIP and other high-level personnel operating under Secret Facility clearance from the US Department of Defense for "nonscheduled air transportation."

- Blackwater Target Systems: Firearm training buildings and logistics.

- Raven Development Group (RDG): Created to construct Blackwater's Moyock facilities. Currently is able to external pageprovide anythingcall_made from an "office complex constructed in North Carolina, an aviation hangar in Virginia or a secure barracks compound in Baghdad."


• EP Management Services LLC: Functions are unknown but external pageregisteredcall_made at Blackwater's Moyock, North Carolina address.


• Neptune Solutions LLC: Also Neptune Solutions 1 LLC; Both incorporated in the Marshall Islands, a external pagewell-known offshore tax havencall_made. "A little over a year later and weeks after Prince testified before the US congressional oversight committee, [Prince] filed applications to withdraw the companies' LLC status in North Carolina. It remains unclear whether these companies are still operating, or what role they play, or were intended to, within Prince's private security empire."


• Pelagian Maritime, LLC: Currently owns the McArthur, a 183-foot ship used for training and disaster response operations.

External Divisions (under Prince Holdings)

• Greystone Ltd: A smaller external pageprivate security companycall_made used in overseas operations as well as to market and recruit international personnel.


• Prince Manufacturing: Formed by Erik Prince's father, Edgar Prince, external pagespecializingcall_made in "fabrication, forming, finishing and assembly of metal and composite products."


• Total Intelligence Solutions LLC: Prince's private intelligence company that offers national governments and Fortune 1000 companies round-the-clock information gathered from open sources.

Notable Incidents

• 2003: Blackwater receives a US$21 million no-bid contract to guard then-Coalition Provisional Authority, L Paul Bremer. Blackwater trains security teams for the upcoming Olympic Games in Greece.


• March 2004: Four Blackwater contractors are ambushed and attacked by insurgents in Falluja during a cargo delivery operation. Their bodies were hung over a bridge and the US military retaliated in what is now known as the Battle of Falluja.


• April 2005: A Blackwater helicopter is shot down in Iraq, killing six employees. The company later external pagereceivescall_made a contract from the state of Azerbaijan to "enhance Azerbaijan Naval Sea Commando's maritime interdiction capability." Later Blackwater personnel deploy to New Orleans, Louisiana, US during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.


• 2006: Blackwater wins contract to protect the US Embassy in Iraq, the largest American embassy in the world.


• Christmas Eve 2006: An intoxicated Blackwater employee fires and kills an Iraqi civilian. The employee is fired from Blackwater and returns to the US. Months later, the former Blackwater employee returns to Iraq as an employee of a different private company. Blackwater and the US Department of State attempt to keep identities secret.


• February 2006: A Blackwater sniper kills three Iraqi security personnel guarding the state-funded Iraq Media Network.


• 2007: A Blackwater Hughes H-6 Helicopter is shot down in Baghdad, killing at least four Blackwater personnel.


• September 2007: Blackwater opens fire on 17 Iraqi civilians causing international media attention, an FBI investigation, and causing the US House of Representatives to subject all private contractors in combat zones subject to US military regulation. The Iraqi government revokes Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq. The FBI takes over an investigation into the alleged smuggling of arms by Blackwater through Iraq to the Kurdistan Workers Party, a designated terrorist organization by the US.


• October 2007: Erik Prince testifies before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, making public some of Prince's assets and new information on the relationship between private contractors and the US federal government. The next day, Blackwater rescues a Polish ambassador following an assassination attempt.


• June 2008: Three US soldiers die in a plane crash aboard a flight operated by Prince's Presidential Airways, Inc in Afghanistan. Blackwater external pageurgescall_made a US court to use Sharia law since the crash occurred in Afghanistan and states that "companies shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of their employees." Days later, US federal agents raid Blackwater's Moyock compound and seize 34 automatic weapons.