Why are mercenary armies are so rare in Sci-Fi? 

"Mind tricks don't work on me, only money"

The main reason why nobles and kings would hire mercenaries is simple, if you don't hire them, your enemies will, and then they won't be your enemies for much longer.

Mercenaries where also economically useful in a primarily pre industrial farming socity as you did not have to pull men out of the fields to fight. The primary age group for soldiers is also your primary age group for farm labors.

At the very least, in Star Wars Legends, the Mandalorians did eventually create a mercenary army that at one point was hired by the Galactic Alliance during a spat they had with Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Order

One of the main reasons why the thirty year war was so bloody was because of how many mercenaries were used on all sides, with up to 30 million dead from famine, disease and looting.

He really leaned into "They're all monsters", but mercs come in just as many kinds of moral/professional shades as any other body of people. As an example, in Battletech, The Eridani Light Horse are one of the most famous merc units. They are the descendants of the Star League Defense Forces, professional soldiers of humanity's golden age in Battletech. The ELH fight because it is their job, and they wait for the day when the SLDF and the Star League to be resurrected - definitely NOT because of some desire for booty or blood-thirstiness. When they set up a camp, the ELH always fly three flags: the flag of the regiment, the flag of the House they are currently serving, and a bare pole, highest and in the center, for the day when the Star League banner can be put back up.

12:00 At least one of the Mass Effect "mercenary companies" does get legitimate contracts, but they still generally act like thugs. Specifically, the Blue Suns operate at least one legitimate high security prison.

Kinda twisting the definition of mercenary to make your point

"Looks like its those mercenaries. Think they're gonna turn tail and run again?"

Mercenaries provide us with beautiful Sabaton songs about sacking Rome and defending the Pope

Something interesting to note about the idea that in Sci Fi, mercenaries might struggle to properly equip themselves. Depending on the setting, it is entirely possible that 3d printing/ manufacturing technology gets so much easier, that a mercenary group might set up camp on a mineral rich asteroid and starts pumping out military equipment and even starships. An example I personally love is Horatio from Endless Space. An entire faction, that is essentially just an ultra rich narcissist cloning himself a few million times to make the galaxy a „better“ place, where all sentient life is Horatio.

A friend of mine had a great turn of phrase regarding Landsknecht and 16th-17th century warfare in general. "If your side didn't have Swiss Pikes they had Landsknecht, if they didn't have Landsknecht then they had Cossacks, if the didn't have Cossacks then you were on the wrong team"

Macross' latest entries feature two mercenary groups (called in-universe private military contractors, but they're called for what they are at least once). Apparently there was a failed coup, after which the New United Nations decentralized and started hoarding the best equipment, while colony fleets and far-flung colonies have to do with monkey models and outdated equipment they supplement with weirdly well-equipped mercenaries.

Archeological works showed up that mercenaries existed in Europe, in 13th century BC, during the Bronze Age. It's a very old line of work. Mercs are a double-edged sword, they can be a blessing, or a worst curse. For everyone, who will hire them.

Mercenaries are mentioned as being commonplace in the Foundation Universe, with the Galactic Empire in full collapse and numerous petty kingdoms across the Galaxy, fighting one another for territory and resources

I grew up on mercenary Science Fiction, from the obvious properties like Battletech and Star Wars to the classic authors like Pournelle and Drake. In the modern era, mercenaries are all over the place, but especially in third-world areas. They don't get as much billing as they may have in the past, and the biggest names tend to be filed under "private security" or other euphemisms to bypass certain laws in certain places (in the case of the USA, the anti-Pinkerton laws and whatnot).

My first answer I came up with is when designing your sci-fi setting you need to rack your brain just to make the major factions for huge battles and mercenaries are a collection of minor factions that you need flesh out and it’s to much work.

"There will be a substantial reward for the one who finds the Millennium Falcon. You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive."

They're actually pretty common in alot of the more fleshed out sci-fi settings

At least in Star Wars. outside of the general central governments mercenary groups are quite prevalent. They don't always take the name "Mercenary" but local sector defense forces, outsourced droid armies and battleships, private station securities all essentially function the same way as mercenaries do: They will protect those who pay them, usually in their local area. Even many large pirate groups (the hutts, black sun, ect) have many independent branches that do "independent contracting work". Surprisingly enough, once you get into the gritty lore of the universe you realize that the SW universe despite its large governments is very, very lawless, especially in the expansion region and the outer rim. Even members of the central seats of power require the use of decentralized, and independent groups to protect their assets, especially in the era of the demilitarized pre clonewars era.

Shout-out to David Drake's Hammer's Slammers: the most elite & ruthless mercenary armored cavalry regiment in space!

In StarWars Legends, I think the only time the Mandalorians run a mercenary armie is later when Boba Fett gets voted in by all of them as the new Mandalor. As he was at the time most well known, respected and feared of all the Mandalorians, he was also the leader of Clan Fett(one of the largest clans) due to all the surviveing clones that had familys both biological children and adopted. Any way Boba as Mandalor had the leadership of the mercenary clans and directed which contracts were in the best long term intrest of the Mandalorian clans after being too scattered across the galexy due to the Empire.

Star Wars has some merc groups. Not groups that can win wars, but groups that could sway battles.

Mercenaries in Syfy might work better as "corporate security details" that can be bought or rented, and not so much as forces of war. For example, some agricultural planetary settlement needs protection and the party which owns the settlement approaches another party or corporation to provide security measures against criminals, untamed nature or worst case to buy time against an all out assault, but not necessarily to wage a war. These security details could still be considered "mercenaries", I'd say this is also how mass effect defines Mercs. Funnily enough Cerberus, the only non-government independent group to field an army big enough to challenge the major powers is considered just a terrorist group.

In a setting I am writting mercenaries exsist because warmachines are essentially fused to individuals so when your warship/warmachine is too outdated to continue to serve in a nations military they are essentially just released feom service because its inhumane to do anything else. So you can have a Merc fleet of dozens of now outdated military vessels and warmachines that will then contract with corporations, planets, or factions in exchange for logistical support. They may even continue service with their faction of origin as forces in the same way PMC's do.

"Mandalorians aren't Mercs" You know some of them are large, organized military units for hire right? They aren't all Boba Fett clones (no pun intended)

Black Rock, the investment firm has really branched out lately!

Are you familiar with David Drake's "Hammer's Slammer's"? It's a wonderful series about a mercenary group that uses the most high tech tanks imaginable.

Personally I have the feeling that in most sciences fiction universes the mercenaries are used for special operation purposes, where you don't need a huge force but rather one who his hard to connect to your government. Like a Delta Squad, Sas or Green Berets for hire

Go with the Slammers! The "good guys", but without any mercy or concern.

Loving all the Battletech love in the comments and image selections.

"It just a job 621 All of it" Greatest dad in Armored core

I feel like in legends post endor galaxy Mercs could have popped up. Lots of chaos, lots of weaopons, and a lot of different groups that want one another dead.

"Wherever there is a Mercenary there is strife and chaos." - Memoirs of General Andross Mcoy.

Another example of mercs: Kiith Soban from Homeworld.

BattleTech enters the chat ..... "Huh"

"Why are mercenary armies are so rare in Sci-Fi?" Bruh, Battletech literally exists

The Hizari in Star Trek Voyager are mercenaries. In Star Trek Online you had to hire them to fight the Vaaduar. They are a delta Quadrant force as it's the only area with the instability necessary for mercs.

Well, in Star Trek, we know of some mercenaries from various races. Quark thought about hiring mercenaries to bust his brother out of prison (Nausicaans), Miles O'Brien once won Tongo against a a Romulan Mercenary, Chakotays crew consisted of Malcontents, Outlaws and Mercenaries, the Trill Verad hired two Klingon mercenaries to take the Dax symbiont, and when Ishka was captured, Rom wanted to hire Nausicaan, Breen or Klingon mercenaries to rescue their mother. And then there is the Ferengi Leck, an "Eliminator" (yes, technically an assassin, but still). He was not interested in money, only in fighting, so technically that doesn't count as mercenary, but he offered his services to anyone in need of a professional and his preferred skills were quite different from other Ferengi. /Edit: Edited out some spelling-errors

The Traveller RPG has mercenaries, but they were mainly at border worlds such as in the Spinward Marches

Another more recent example of proper mercenaries would be Executive Outcomes from South Africa.

I think Comstar and the MRB/MRBC setup and the power they wield in the Battletech setting make Mercs much more viable, is this realistic? I’m not sure but it sure is fun.

Forgot at least a couple. David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" with Alois Hammer and the series that starts with a book called "The Tactics of Mistake". The Dorsai series. Ends with "The Final Encyclopedia". In most settings with Mercs there is usually a central controlling body that takes care of the contracts that they operate under. Try giving them a look and you can see how it can work in a sci-fi setting that removes some of the amoral aspects of your reasons you think they couldn't work. The points you made only apply to those settings as that is the way they have been set up.

Actually there are mercenaries in Star Trek (yes even by you're unbelievably narrow grammatically unusable definition). I can Cite at least two. First off the Ferrangi DEFINITELY have mercenaries, and sometimes operate as such. The Ferangi Marauder which is their main ship has been shown to be technologically on par with the largest federation ships as well as having similar size and capabilities. Note that such ships are independently operated and the Ferrangi don't really have a true central government, we see them operating as independent privateers and threatening federation ships in a military capacity multiple times in TNG. There are also the Lethians, who are a telepathic species known to hire out as fighters to other species including the klingons as well as multi species criminal organizations. We only really get glimpses of the alpha and beta quadrants outside the big three powers in TNG but there are definitely a lot of systems and worlds outside the major powers and we've seen real mercs operating on multiple occasions which makes a good deal of sense given how lesser powers like the cardassians breen and others are known to be belligerent but not big enough to be a problem for the likes of the Klingons romulans or federation.

I mean blackwater and wagner group are two examples of state sponsered mercenary groups. A way for states to wage illegal wars. Keep official casualty statistics low. Places to try out new weapons or dump old gear unto. Used to train allied states or occupied govts. Used to cheaply bulk up a military's support and logistics train (since you arent paying to train them or give them benefits). Also they are highly desirable for rich third world nations who lack a competent military heritage and/or are plagued with corruption/nepotism issues. Better to hire external professionals then rely on your own shit army. Also merc bodyguards are probably one of the better represented uses in history (when political assasination from your own general/ a coup risk too high to give an army), hire the guys who have no ties to the local politics. So i think the video missed quite a few legit uses for them in the future. In starwars for example they would be more akin to the corporate sector security forces. Like corellia, kuat and other powerful entities had their own fleets to protect their assets outside of the government forces. Lets not even discuss that mercenary groups are typically a byproduct of periods of extended conflict. Lots of young men with combat experience and not much else wandering around the countryside turning to banditry was a common result. Better to have mercenary groups put them to use in a more easily accountable organization. The bulk of PMCs today are staffed by former soldiers. Today we also see former soldiers joining up in independent expeditionary battalions like in ukraine, where nato can not send its own soldiers but can turn a blind eye to foreigners joining the ukrainian army. Sort of like how the french foreign legion was massively bulked up by former german soldiers post ww2.

5:58 believe it or not, Wager actually had mi-24 gunship and Su-25 jet crews on its payroll.

Battletech and surprisingly Mass Effect do mercs in space well. When your nation is so big you can't realistically cover all of your own territory, mercenaries make up the difference. Likewise in all the wild and untamed parts of the map where governmental mandates are more of a suggestion and the idea that the army is going to be there to save you isn't likely, mercs can and will do that jobs....for a price. Provided they aren't the same groups you'd want protection from.

Before the video: Space is big. I would think there would be a HUGE demand for Mercs to raid shipping lanes/planets etc of nearby systems. Think Orian Syndicate of Star Trek, or Bounty Hunters/Mandolorians of Star Wars. Pirates and mercenaries working for pay in the vastness of space seems almost the same as old seafaring Pirates and mercenaries 🤔

In Battletech many/most of the mercenary companies started out as official military in one of the great houses. After feeling like they'd been betrayed by their leaders they went rogue and hired themselves out to anyone that would pay enough to keep them going. I'd suspect that other mercenary companies started off as several smaller groups that banded together to get better jobs. Otherwise yes, SF mercs would need to be initially and probably consistently funded by somebody with a lot of money to spend on expensive future weaponry that they'd need to be competitive with other militaries; and especially if major battles are fought in space with ships; it's hard for a group of friends who can't find a stable job to scrape together the funds to buy a small fleet of warships that would be competitive in battle; and crew them.

Cheers for this. Was just writing a Traveler RPG campaign and realizing a lot of the things that you mentioned, especially how certain specific conditions need to be around for mercenaries to "logically" fit in the setting.

My meta-answer to the question is that mercenaries are so rare in science fiction because David Drake did it so well with his Hammer's Slammers series.

if you are looking for mercenary scifi check out David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series of stories and novels

I personally could see Klingons going out and being mercenaries and hired guns. And I could see their Empire using them as auxiliaries during warfare to help bolster their fleet and army numbers.

1:14 pmcs and mercs are interchangeable as the skillset and person to any of those two professions is the same just depends on how morally bankrupt someone is and pmc's are already deep in the grey zone

David Drake's Hammer's Slammers and Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion stories both explore and revolve around SciFi mercenaries but are 35+ years old. The authors who were impacted by Vietnam had a pretty grim view.

Schlock Mercenary manages it somehow. Mostly for comedic effect, I suspect. There seems to be well-maintained police and military forces in many systems, but I guess there are places where at least company to regimental sized units can be used. The unit central to the story gets into a lot of different assignments to chase the eternal paycheck. Tagon's Toughs: "Travel The Galaxy! Meet Fascinating New Life-Forms! And Then Kill Them."

"Real mercenaries have not existed in real life for a long time?" Have you missed the whole continent of Africa? The UN Mercenary Convention entered into force in 2001. South Africa had to ban their citizens from fighting in foreign wars in 2010, because so many were joining merc units. South African mercs were instrumental in the fight against Daesh in 2015, despite that. Merc units tried to take over whole countries in and around Africa since the 60's, sometimes repeatedly in the same country. 2004 Wonga Coup comes to mind. They have included air assets, often. Either flying local machines or bringing their own. In the Eritrean-Ethiopian War Russian mercs were flying against each other on both sides. In Africa the use of merc air assets was quite often the main reason to even bring them in. Also, Landsknechte were highly regulated and disciplined, until the Sacco di Roma, they were considered very reliable and beside the Swiss the best army units in Europe. They were only allowed to fight for imperial rulers and units which fought for other kings were given no quarter. Most european rulers styled their standing national armies after them. They were literally not a thing anymore when the 30 years war started. The mercenaries of the 30 years war had little in common with Landsknechte. Landsknechte were not condottiere, armagnac, Reisläufer, Fussknechte nor brabançons. PS. There are whole book series about mercenary units in science-fiction. Falkenberg's Legion for example. Star Trek is FULL of merceneries. Did you forget the TNG double episode where Picard was captured by a mercenary unit and became a member of the crew to find an ancient vulcan weapon for a romulan agent? Or, how a bunch of mercs stormed DS9 to steal the Dax symbiote? The whole Nausicaan race is literally nothing else. There are also side remarks about Bajoran, Ferengi and Romulan mercenaries all over DS9.

I wonder did any here ever read the dorsai books?

Id recommend Farscape's Peacekeepers. While they de-facto rule entire chunks of the galaxy theyre a mix of Mamluks and Italian Condotierre, with a dash of Norman, in space. They generally prefer being invited and then becoming kingmakers. (Also watch Farscape if you haven't, beautifullu trippy show)

I've always been interested in the sci-fi versions of mercenaries and bounty hunters!

On the "why would you employ them?" Well if I dont my enemies will 😆

Great Video, it was so good it kind of makes me want a whole series of videos looking into other well used tropes like Space Piracy, Mega Corporations, Trade or Manufacturing Guilds, etc...

You completely forgot the Orion Syndicate and the Ferengi from Star Trek. They would totally use mercenary armies.

There is an interesting book setting (90s pulp) called the "Dirigent Mercenary Corps"... This was a verse with ONE merc group, the titular one ... LSS the planet had been developed and was a University/ r&d centered planet... Long ago they were invaded and the Brains turned their plowshares into swords and now hire out troops from company level and above to any of the hundreds of human planets in the Verse... For internal Conflicts, one planet is threatening it's agricultural neighbor... Etc... however they are highly trained and under full, strict military discipline... It's sheer pulp, but such a cool series.

In the universe i developed Humanses are basically nation states for hire, they have their own mothership "City" occasionally even alliances of them, their own full fledged fleets (military and civilian) planet side and orbital settlements and bases and all, only on small scale, only to provide the city with its minimal get by needs, the main reason was after the long war humanses had so much numbers cloned of themselves, an stupifying amount of war material at hand and a lot of first hand war experience, the greater powers let humans settle where the wished but every time the colony was developed into substantial profit or unearthed something really valuable they came around with enough political leverage to rob it from under humanses feet, then humanses fought for it and lost, every time, after a while humanses decided to go with the wiser plan, if you can't beat them join them, so they forgo the entire investing and developing of the colonies and instead hired off themselves to the bigger players to do the stealing part instead, and it paid, in the current time of my universe humans are just that, nation states getting paid in credit and material to fight other people's dirtier wars for them. Mercenary nations... and of course, pretty awesome at it too, cause himanses are supreme ya'll...

I love the Battletech imagery used here. "Look at the bright side, kid. You get to keep all the money."

It's not entirely impossible to have mercs in your story. It's more a matter of what you actually call them. Bandits - Any number of reasons people turn to banditry. Among the top you can find retired soldiers, dishonorably discharged soldiers, AWOL soldiers, or even soldiers in disguise. "Shit, our scouting party has been cornered, men, act like bandits!" "Sir, the platoon we sent to the front, were mugged on the way, they're in rough shape." "Is that the best shit story you could feed me?!" Brigands - Bandits in large enough numbers to choke trade routes. Pirates - See Bandits above. Privateers - Ship Captains with letters of mark by their nation to act like pirates against enemy commerce. Now, David Weber's Honorverse shows another type of merc. Definition, by definition, is definition. Small allied nations need skilled military personnel to train their military's upper echelons. Manticore's military their willing personnel on half-pay (semi-retirement) and promise to keep rank advancement on time. These troops are then put on the pay-role of the allied nation, as what they figure is appropriate rank with advancements and honors for a number of years. Sometimes these troops even come with hardware; whether this hardware is old-tech or cutting-edge is dependent on personnel contribution (to the war at hand) and general resource availability. Though they will hand out ships in spades, none of them are Capital Ships. They may send Capital Ships to your space, but they are not being loaned to you. If you want Capital Ships, you have to build or buy them yourself, but that comes with it's own caveat; you need the personnel, skill and infrastructure to operate them. Sometimes it's easier just to provide occupying forces. These can also be called mercs; highly dependent on trust.

I think your definition of merc is a bit narrow. The way I see it, any soldier for hire is a mercenary. This can blur the line between them and other things like bounty hunters or hit men, but the key is it being a war, or other sorts of distinctly military stuff.

The European Anti-Mercenary bias is very clear here. First, Mercenaries were often specialists, Sappers and Artillerists being to two most predominant examples but later Musketeers and riflemen joined. In these cases, while larger states could afford their own, while smaller states lacked the specialized training, knowledge and equipment.The biggest factor in the demise of the Mercenary was that the smaller states of Europe were subsumed into larger nations. Smaller states who had lacked the Financial, Industrial and manpower resources often hired mercenaries make up these shortfalls and often hired out their own subjects as mercenaries to larger states. Hesse is probably the most well known example of the latter as The Landgrave Frederick II who contracted with the British to provide soldiers for both the American revolution and the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Hessian forces were organized, trained and equipped by Hesse and loaned as units to supplement British forces. Hessian units were known to be well trained and highly disciplined units though considered somewhat inferior to the British Regulars. Hesse did this in order to fund their own military expansion and other state expenditures. In a Sci-fi context, nations or planets who lack the industrial base and/or material resources would see mercenaries both as a means of generating revenue (off-planet credit) and a way to develop indigenous military capability. Planets having the resource base but lacking advanced technology would see them as a way of supplementing conventional forces with advanced technological capabilities. Advanced states would likely see such units as a way of maintaining military superiority or high-tech industries in weapons development and production while transferring the costs to others. Likewise, states with moral or other constraints on the use of force might see lesser societies (or races) as acceptable surrogates. The possibility of Corporations using mercenaries to engage other corporations, national or planetary governments or to obtain and exploit resources is just as likely in this context as well. I recommend some good books and series in this vein; Jerry Pournelle, CoDominium series, Janissaries series Gordon R. Dickson, Childe Cycle (the Dorsai Novels in particular) David Drake, The Hammerverse Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vorkosigan Saga John Dalmas, Regiment series John Ringo, The Legacy of the Aldenata series Allen Cole and Chris Bunch, The Sten Chronicles Andre Norton, Central Control series Walter Jon Williams, Voice of the Whirlwind C. J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun series, The Company Wars series

Mechwarrior (Battletech universe) fans: boy have I got some news for you buddy

Enjoyed the video, but you missed two major mercenary groups from SF literature. The Dorsai books involve a planet who supplies nothing but mercenaries for other planets. Also, the Sardukar from the Dune books. While not strictly mercenaries by your definition in this series, very close to it and definitely worth a mention.

A good setting for mercenaries is Rifts, also known as Science Fantasy on Crack. North America is a good example. Between the Coalition States based in Chicago, the Alien invaders from Atlantis, the Vampire Kingdoms pushing up from Mexico, the Pacos Empires, and Banditos based out of area 51, there is plenty of opportunity, support and demand for the several merc armies running around. There is even one comprised of demons in power armor.

Mercs need the right mix of instability and brush-wars to flourish. Lower barrier to entry certainly helps, but old military equipment can also serve their needs when starting out. That said, SC.I played with the definition a bit too much in order to support his argument for my liking. I fail to see a convincing reason to be so restrictive, beyond artificially reducing the number of examples that qualify. Much like national armies, there are many different types of mercenaries and not all of them have the same goals, scale, or tactics. This is why PMCs do qualify, just as a different kind of merc. Same goes for mainly ideologically motivated outfits, which do exist in real life (the Swiss Guard come to mind) and media (Battletech has the Eridani Light Horse, as another comment pointed out). Matter of fact, it's pretty easy to disqualify just about any outfit from being 'true mercenaries' by adding some slight stipulations that seem common enough to make sense. For example, Wagner could easily be disqualified as a 'proper' merc outfit on the grounds that most if not all of its combatants come from the same nation-state as their employer, meaning that there's a solid basis for considering them a part of Russia's national army, just one that has a different legal status and has/had some built-in diplomatic deniability - arguable this is how they now function, without their original leader. This doesn't have to be difficult. Do you fight/kill as a team/unit/army for personal gain while being expendable to your ultimate employers, which are some flavor of local government/warlord/moneybags but you aren't part of their normal military structure? If so, congratulations, you're a merc, a soldier of fortune, a gun for hire. What sort of mercenary is a separate and more in-depth question, but all of them have at least this much in common.

Kiith Soban (Homeworld) are essentially mercenaries (a clan of mercenaries) and they werent violent like any mercenaries and more acting like PMCs to other Kiiths

As societies develop and industrialize, the state needs to become larger to manage all these parts; this makes the necessity of organizing the various armies into a cohesive whole. We saw this during the 1600-1800's. Mercenary armies fell out of fashion as industrialization, agriculture revolution all happened. Workers in Europe could produce more food and more things, meaning more laborers were available for manpower. Its why France was so dominant, they mass recruited the majority of their population, Firearms reduced the martial skill needed, so professional troops were easier to train and maintain, this meant that mercenaries who practiced year-round for their contract, were competing against cheaper, well equiped, and equally skilled soldiers

If the big bucks with the high risk is not for you, maybe a career as a privateer could be for you. A steady paycheck with extra benefits from pardons to keeping the spoils from bandit or pirate forces instead of front line battle with patrolling trade routes.

you did miss one type of merc. the state backed mercenaries. mercs that might as well be part of the standing army of an independent nation but because that nation isn't a major player and wants to stay neutral but still wants to leverage its military it lends that military out as mercs to other warring nations. they'd have all the training and equipment of a proper army. an example would be the swiss mercenaries. sponsored by the swiss confederacy so long as they always return immediately to defend Switzerland if they're attacked.

meanwhile with battltech the mecranrys even got a offical bueru bulltaion bords contract sistem across all of human space. heck in battletech even the clans even use them too if they want too.

Not to mention the Condotieri of Renaissance Italy

Nicolo Machiavelli: "Do I need to repeat myself again?"

The problem is, theres no 1 man force multipliers. In a setting where planetary forces can be assembled, and capital ships are measured in miles, a mercenary company the size of China couldn't provide a measurable advantage absent them all manning/supporting/piloting a space fleet of vehicles. It works in battletech not just because mechs exist, but because they're difficult to make, maintain, and deliver to the various and sundry battlefields. The barrier to entry is any 4 mechs and a single dropship.

There is no less then 10 mercenary groups fighting in Ukraine on both sides. A mercenary group does not have to be a full army. Alot of times they are free-lance fighters or could be specialized forces fulfilling a rule. the definition of mercenary is: one that serves merely for wages. It is misleading to imply that numbers too low to be a full army is not mercenaries. And mercenaries have been around for thousands of years with one of the oldest recorded being in 401BCE where 10,000 mercenaries were hired on just one side. Has for sci-fi settings there are thousands of examples of them being used from Star Wars to Hammer's slammers. Warhammer, battle tech, etc... It really depends on the nature of the setting and the cost of space travel.

If your allegiance is up for sale then you are a mercenary. If you just work for someone's army as an outside contractor then you are not a mercenary. There is a reason mercenary is a noun verb and adjective.

funding is the more reasons they dont exist and pay, its more profitable to go pirate

I could see Mercenaries being a thing in the verse (Firefly setting), especially in the more desperate hours of the war. We never see them and I don’t think they have ever been mentioned in the setting so they probably don’t exist by the time of the show at least.

I disagree on Mass Effect, as we seen in ME2 at least Blue Suns have their own planets and plants, IIRC recruitment mission for Okir mentions a Blue Suns cruiser, they have ships, guns an means to produce them. So does the Eclipse. Heck, even Blood Pack has some means of weapon production. And I gurantee you, that Batarian Hegemony use all those "pirates" to do they dirty shit for them.

I would kind of also mention the condottieri who were basically Italian mercenaries in the late medieval period. Also they were often slightly unique because some of the groups were also basically bankers and as a result had bucket loads of cash avaliable.

This is one of those things that never really occurs to you until someone points it out!

Even in WH40K, where some would say is a shitty enough setting to have the requirements outlined in the video for merc companies to exist, doesn't have them. Because the IoM for example would rather use conscription and servitors than hire out mercenaries, as the populace is practically self-sustaining. Even the gangs in Necromunda would never be able to be become mercenaries, because the IG can simply have more conscripts than the hive gangs can muster.

I think the reliance on scale to define mercenaries may have been a little over emphasised here. Mass effect's mercenary organisations, for example. I think they are absolutely large enough to be considered an army for hire, even if they're usually deployed in double digit numbers. Their lack of a navy would be akin to complaining that Landsknechts didn't have any warships or that battletech's mercenaries lack anything bigger than fighters for space combat, if they have even that.

There are several definition of "mercenaries". I think it is important because some definitions exist and prosper (like Bobba Fet) and some really don't. Basically bodyguard are also some form of mercenaries.

Basically, for merc bands to form you need a certain brand of instability and near total war state of things, otherwise you have something like Private Military Contractors or hired hitmen (let alone just thugs). In relatively stable settings people are way too attached to one or the other ideology to form something a big band that doesn't care for whoom they work for- hell even places like 40K aren't that unstable to have mercs, Imperium and Eldari are cohearent enough plus Imperial creed distains disenters and aliens, Tau are basucally unifying everything, even the hired races, under one ideology, Chaos too- but the ideology is the god you pray to and if you try to work for everyone you are turned to soup or something worse, and Nekrons and Tyranids fundamentaly can't have disenters or side-hopping bastards- Nids are a hive mind and standard Nekrons basically run on programming which they can't defy

Honestly, I’m not sure I agree with your narrow definition of mercenary.

This I have to respond to. Everything you said MIGHT be true of scifi film and tv BUT you've left out print science fiction. There are two famous military science fiction series that deal almost exclusively with mercenary armies. First there's " Hammer's Slammers " by David Drake. David Drake was an intelligence officer assigned to support an armored unit during the vietnam war, and he came back from the war with PTSD. As a sort of self therapy, he wrote the Hammer's Slammers series. It's gritty, emmersive, and sometimes shocking and some of the battle scenes in the book came from actual battles he witnessed or fought in. The series includes the anthology "Hammer's Slammers" , "At Any Price" , "Paying The Piper" , " Rolling Hot " and several others. Actual officers at the pentagon have read the series since it deals realistically with war in the future. The other series that comes to mind is " The Mercenary " by Jerry Pournelle. ( can't get more direct than that ) When he wrote that book and the further adventures of John Christian Falkenburg , He was invited to speak at the pentagon because he deals with the subject of a mercenary's dream of a long war with little to no fighting. ( although when there is fighting its dramatic and intense ) He also deals with insurgency and ending or withdrawl from the conflict. Both of these series are famous in the annals of print science fiction, so I was surprised by the title of this video. ( What is he talking about, is this only click bait ? ) After seeing the video I see you were talking only about video and games. I would strenuously recommend you look up either of these series ( Hammer's Slammers is my favorite of the two ) . You will be richly rewarded by very good reads.

you take on what is a 'mercenary' is your most original, if not your only original, thought so far. This video made me think. Well done!

remember the geneva convention doesn't apply to PMCs :^)

It's just a job 621 all of it

Do be fair, Putin didn’t take very long to put down Prig. He knew full well that it was a “devil’s bargain” and that Wagnar was no longer the low profile “deniable” asset they had been. So they just folded them into the proper military using their experience which was what triggered the mutiny in the first place. Prigossian was going to lose his private army.

This varies by setting, and a lot of that variance is caused by speed and ability to patrol your own space. If the central government is in full control, you won't see mercs much, since they wouldn't really be necessary. They'd be more like private security concerns in Star Trek. Meanwhile, you have Schlock Mercenary, the greatest Scifi Comeday Space Opera Webcomic, which, given the title, is all about these.

Super rich breakdown! Love this content.