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'Defense contractor' is a euphemism used because mercenaries have been considered a disreputable lot for centuries, if not longer.

meowface 6y ago
"Mercenary" is ambiguous, though. A mercenary is often defined as an entity who does any job for any buyer in the world, if the price is right. A defense contractor generally only engages in deals with certain entities. Mercenaries are more like NSO Group and HackingTeam.
- asdff 6y ago
  A mercenary is simply a soldier for hire. They can still be choosy who they do business with. I'd say a group like Blackwater is a proper mercenary organization rather than Northrup Grumman, however.
  - meowface 6y ago
    They can be choosy, but I'd say they're definitionally considered less choosy than contractors. You'll probably never see Northrop Grumman building missiles on contract for Assad, but you may very well see NSO Group writing surveillance software for him, for example.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  Countries have long had laws about what sort of business mercenaries in or from that country are allowed to accept. That doesn't make mercenaries in or from that country 'not mercenaries.'
  - meowface 6y ago
    I think there are still too many other differences to consider Northrop/Raytheon/Lockheed mercenaries. They're the core of the US military-industrial complex, but I still think they're effectively an arm of the US military and are much closer to contractors than mercenaries. A company like Blackwater is much closer to actual mercenaries - they're trying to build their own private, independent military-industrial complex, in a sense, by selling their services to existing complexes.
    - bigbubba 6y ago
      If your point is that some self-described 'defense contractors' are arms merchants rather than mercenaries, then I agree. 'Defense contractor' is still a euphemism in that case however. For this matter, Department of Defense is also a euphemism. It used to have the more honest name Department of War until that was changed in the late 1940s.

meowface 6y ago

"Mercenary" is ambiguous, though. A mercenary is often defined as an entity who does any job for any buyer in the world, if the price is right. A defense contractor generally only engages in deals with certain entities. Mercenaries are more like NSO Group and HackingTeam.

asdff 6y ago
A mercenary is simply a soldier for hire. They can still be choosy who they do business with. I'd say a group like Blackwater is a proper mercenary organization rather than Northrup Grumman, however.
- meowface 6y ago
  They can be choosy, but I'd say they're definitionally considered less choosy than contractors. You'll probably never see Northrop Grumman building missiles on contract for Assad, but you may very well see NSO Group writing surveillance software for him, for example.
bigbubba 6y ago
Countries have long had laws about what sort of business mercenaries in or from that country are allowed to accept. That doesn't make mercenaries in or from that country 'not mercenaries.'
- meowface 6y ago
  I think there are still too many other differences to consider Northrop/Raytheon/Lockheed mercenaries. They're the core of the US military-industrial complex, but I still think they're effectively an arm of the US military and are much closer to contractors than mercenaries. A company like Blackwater is much closer to actual mercenaries - they're trying to build their own private, independent military-industrial complex, in a sense, by selling their services to existing complexes.
  - bigbubba 6y ago
    If your point is that some self-described 'defense contractors' are arms merchants rather than mercenaries, then I agree. 'Defense contractor' is still a euphemism in that case however. For this matter, Department of Defense is also a euphemism. It used to have the more honest name Department of War until that was changed in the late 1940s.