Modern military contractors vs. 'Iron Man'

'Minimal competition'
That reduced competition among major contractors may contribute to problems of inefficiency, Singer said.

Budget overruns and delays for weapon systems appear to be the rule. The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major defense systems exceeded their budgets by $295 billion collectively in a March 2008 report, including an upgraded version of the F-22 Raptors that duel with Stark in "Iron Man."

But even noncompetitive, no-bid contracts are "perfectly legitimate under certain circumstances," said James Jay Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel. The U.S. military awarded such contracts to get on a war footing quickly and invade Iraq.

Now that U.S. efforts have switched to providing long-term security and reconstruction, though, experts say contracts should be more competitive to boost efficiency.

Corruption and waste among contractors and local officials in Iraq caused the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to deem the problem the "second insurgency" in 2007, according to the Associated Press.

Marvel / Paramount A scene in the movie shows Iron Man flying against [F-22] Raptors, which are among the last generation of manned fighter jets.

"There's minimal competition with very few eyes and ears watching the contracting," Singer noted. "Should you be surprised to be billed for one hundred guys working on a site, if you never visited to see if there were even ten?"

Singer blamed the government for acting like a "stupid client." Carafano agreed, adding that the sudden flood of military spending resulted in poorly defined contracts hastily given out.

"It's not about greedy contractors, it's not about backdoor deals, and it's not about politicians making sure certain companies get contracts," Carafano said. "It's about the government not being a very good customer."

Who is on the front lines?
Whatever happens, no one questions that the United States could not fight a war now without outsourcing to military contractors.

"Do you always get value for your money? Not always, but generally, yes you do," Carafano said. "These wars wouldn't be possible without private sector support."

That means military contractors have also expanded beyond just selling military hardware. They now run supply lines, feed troops, build base camps, consult on strategy and even fight as private security forces.

"Companies don't just build the weapons of war, they provide the personnel to use it," Singer said. "They provide the service side of war. That's a pretty historic shift."

The change amounted to more than 180,000 Americans, Iraqis and other nationals working as private contractors in Iraq as of July 2007, exceeding the 163,000 U.S. troops there at the time. Some of those contractors necessarily carry guns in their line of work.

Movie audiences probably won't be troubled by Iron Man dealing out vigilante justice , but experts question how to hold military contractors accountable for their actions if things go badly. Private individuals work in a murky area where no law seems to apply, leading to incidents such as the shooting of Iraqi civilians by guards working for the private military company Blackwater.

"Every human endeavor has bad apples, and that's true whether you're talking about the real world or a comic book world," Singer said. "But do you have a system in place to ensure that the bad apples are punished?"

There's no need to worry about Tony Stark, though. He is, by cinematic definition, one of the good guys.

MORE FROM SCIENCE

Science Section Front

Tiny insect brains can solve big problems Future of evolution: What will we become? Cosmic Log: The bird vs. the Big Bang Machine Good news! NASA says world won’t end in 2012 Top 10 doomsday predictions that failed Humans still evolving as our brains shrink India to move all zoo elephants to wildlife parks Super-sniffing bees combat colony pest Power cut during heat wave shuts Australian zoo Chimps don't talk: Now experts may know why Science Section Front   Add Science headlines to your news reader: