Xe Services LLC, better known by its former names, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide, is a private military company

Private military company

A private military company or provides military and security services. These combatants are commonly known as mercenaries, though modern-day PMCs refer to their staff as security contractors, private military contractors or private security contractors, and refer to themselves as private military...

 founded in 1997 by Erik Prince

Erik Prince

Erik Dean Prince is the founder and formerly the sole owner of the private military company Xe Services LLC, formerly Blackwater Worldwide. On March 2, 2009, Prince announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Xe. He is currently living abroad in the United Arab Emirates, where he is creating a...

 and Al Clark

Al Clark (Blackwater)

Al Clark, along with Erik Prince, was the founder of the private security firm Blackwater.Clark and Prince created Blackwater in 1997 as a business for assuming some of the roles once played by the public sector military, most notably providing security for American and British officials in the...

.. Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

's three private security contractors. Xe provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis. Xe Services also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC

Grizzly APC

This article refers to the experimental APC being developed in the United States. For the AVGP of the Canadian Forces that is also referred to as a Grizzly, go to AVGP....

 along with other military technology.