More private military contractors than uniformed service members were killed while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan between January and June of this year, marking the first time that corporations have lost more personnel on America’s battlefields than the United States military, according to ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative reporting group. More than 250 civilians working under American contractors were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the first six months of 2010, while 235 soldiers died in that same period, according to the latest report in ProPublica’s Disposable Army series.

The numbers, while disheartening, are not surprising. Private contractors have provided more support operations for America’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan than for any other armed conflicts in United States history. With the Aug. 31 drawdown of American combat troops in Iraq and the reliance on contractors for covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it seems likely that the contractor death toll will continue to climb.

There were 207,600 private contractors employed by the Department of Defense, 19 percent more than the 175,000 uniformed personnel members employed by the department, according to a July report by the Congressional Research Service. In Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors make up 54 percent of the Defense Department’s workforce, according to the report.

As of June, contractor deaths represented over 25 percent of all United States fatalities since the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, according to a report by Steven L. Schooner and Collin D. Swan at the George Washington University Law School.

See The New York Times’s coverage of private military contractors here.