Georgia, U.S. join for large-scale military drills
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Georgia and the U.S. are gearing up for upcoming joint military drills to be held in Georgia's territory next week.
Noble Partner joint military exercises scheduled for May 11-25 aim to enhance the U.S. and Georgian NATO Response Force interoperability, the Georgian defense ministry reported.
The U.S. military equipment, involving 14 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and several wheeled-support vehicles, have been delivered to Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi for further transportation to the Vaziani training site outside Tbilisi, where joint U.S.-Georgia military drills will be held.
"The military vehicles designed for the joint Georgian-American exercises have entered the port of Batumi. The equipment needed for drills was sent from Varna, Bulgaria on May 2," the defense ministry said.
"This is the first time that the U.S. Army has deployed a mechanized company worth of equipment across the Black Sea," the U.S. Army said for its turn.
The two-week-long US-Georgian field-training and live-fire
exercises start on May 11 are expected to involve approximately 600
U.S. and Georgian troops from the infantry and mechanized infantry
brigades as well as a police platoons.
Georgian forces will operate alongside the U.S. forces with their
BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles during the exercises, which will
consist of both field training and live fire exercises. The U.S.
173rd Airborne will also partner with Georgian forces for air
operations as part of training, according to the U.S. Army
Europe.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Evelyn Farkas, who visited Tbilisi late April, described the upcoming Noble Partner drills as "the most robust" that the U.S. has conducted with Georgia to date.
"It is a critical part of Georgia and the U.S. contributions to the NATO Response Force," she said on April 24 in Tbilisi.
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