Military adviser
Military advisors are active or former members of the armed forces who are sent to other countries by their mostly state-owned client to train military or paramilitary units, to advise commanders or military politicians, or to participate indirectly in combat operations. The deployment of military advisers is often kept secret . These tasks are increasingly being taken over by private security and military companies.
In most cases, the client country is an industrialized nation , and the deployment often takes place in a less developed country. This form of military support has the advantage for the client country that it can exert military influence, but, especially in the case of secret operations , does not have to bear the political consequences of its own - for example, failed - military operation. In addition, the costs remain significantly lower than if your own troops were deployed in full and fewer losses in your own armed forces can be expected. Often, the use of military advisers is associated with additional financial and material support in arming the receiving country.
In particular, US special forces such as the Green Berets and the Navy Seals are trained for deployment as military advisers, but primarily for direct command and training of units in the country of deployment. Military advice at higher military and political management levels, on the other hand, is usually provided by active or former high-ranking officers in the client country.
During the Cold War , both the United States and the Soviet Union used military aid and advisors to support and retain countries in their own camps. This extended to massive support in so-called proxy wars . In contrast to the USA, the Soviet Union delegated advisory activities to friendly nations, which were awarded increased competence in extreme climatic zones. At the instigation of the Soviet Union, Cuba deployed a large number of advisors in Africa, especially in Angola. The US deployed military advisors particularly extensively in the early phase of the Vietnam War . Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a growth in orders for private military consulting firms, this has been particularly evident in Iraq since the start of the US-led Iraq war in 2003.
literature
- Michael J. Metrinko: Military Advisors. Nova Science Publishers, 2009, ISBN 1606923862