Mercenaries is a new series that explores the lives of people who take part in armed conflict for private gain. This is the story of how mercenaries were transformed from cut-throat soldiers of fortune, fighting in Africa’s forgotten wars, to private corporations earning billions of dollars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The series explores the roles of mercenaries in the 20th and 21st century bloody battlefields to uncover how they tipped the balance of power to earn both fame and infamy. Mercenaries have always endured a filthy reputation, we talk to the men on the ground, in the air and at sea for their firsthand accounts of the truth behind one of the world’s most secretive professions.