Noble Partner: US-Georgia defence drills begin May 11
Tweet 
Share
Heavy military equipment from the United States (US) Army has arrived in Georgia and is ready to be used in a two-week joint US-Georgia military exercise.
The Noble Partner drills, involving about 1,300 service members from Georgia, the US and the United Kingdom, will launch on May 11 and continue for just over two weeks.
A range of heavy equipment involved in the drills has arrived in Georgia and is now stationed at the Vaziani Training Area, just outside Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
The military hardware includes M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) from the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 64th Armour Regiment.
Once the military exercises end, the iconic tanks will be exhibited for public display for Georgia's Independence Day celebrations on May 26 and 27.
Georgia’s Deputy Minister of Defence Ana Dolidze (L) welcomed the visiting military guests and heavy equipment at the Vaziani Training Area on Thursday. Photo from the Ministry of Defence of Georgia/Facebook.
A collection of eight Abrams tanks, seven Bradley Fighting Vehicles, engineering and medical evacuation vehicles as well as other hardware arrived at the Vaziani Base on Thursday after its arrival at Poti Port on Georgia's Black Sea coast.
The equipment and military personnel were welcomed at Vaziani by Chief of General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces (GAF) Major General Vakhtang Kapanadze and Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia Ana Dolidze.
The drills will also feature the Bradley Fighting Vehicle as part of its armoured manoeuvres component. Photo from the Ministry of Defence of Georgia/Facebook.
Kapanadze spoke to reporters about the diverse range of equipment and vehicles set to be involved in the training exercise and noted the drills would benefit all of the involved parties.
[The force includes] diverse set of heavy equipment and combat systems. Most importantly, various support and logistics systems have also arrived - these will allow us to carry out an elaborate and complex exercise," said the GAF top official.
Kapanadze and Dolidze also spoke to logistics specialists from the visiting US forces and the involved GAF units during the arrival of the equipment at Vaziani.
US Army personnel supervise the arrival of equipment at the Vaziani Traninig Area in Georgia. Photo from the Ministry of Defence of Georgia/Facebook.
Established in 2015, the Noble Partner exercise aimed to train service members from the GAF and NATO member states for the NATO Response Force (NRF) unit, and to improve the GAF’s interoperability with NATO soldiers.
This year's drills will involve around 1,300 service members including 650 American, 500 Georgian and 150 British personnel. The drills will be held at the Vaziani Military Base, located 20km outside capital Tbilisi.
The exercise will conclude on May 26 to coincide with the official celebration of Georgia's Independence Day.
The United States (US) Army's iconic Abrams tanks will feature alongside other heavy military equipment at this year's joint Georgia-US military exercise Noble Partner, which starts later this month.
Georgian Armed Forces (GAF) and their United States (US) Army partners will hold a second edition of the joint military exercise Noble Partner as two countries continue their defence cooperation.
Russia is dissatisfied that Georgia and the United States (US) are getting ready to conduct joint military exercises in Georgia.
"Georgia is an independent and sovereign state, which has the right to hold any kind of training on its territory,” Georgia’s Foreign Ministry says.
Georgia has a firm pro-Western course and this direction was chosen by the people of Georgia, says Prime Minister. Giorgi Kvirikashvili stressed the ruling Georgian Dream party had a political vector that fully reflected the nations’ pro-Western choice.
The largest-ever joint military drills between Georgia and NATO have officially launched on Georgian soil. The Noble Partner exercises opened at the Vaziani military air base just outside capital Tbilisi today with a novel display involving military vehicles parachuting out of planes.
Georgian and American soldiers are today practicing anti-tank exercises at Vaziani military base just outside Tbilisi.
The Georgian-American military drills for special operations forces have officially closed in Georgia's capital Tbilisi today.
Georgia will host the largest edition of the annual Noble Partner defence exercise with its European and regional partners later this year with troops from 11 countries joining forces for the training.
Georgia’s Minister of Defence Levan Izoria announced today that the large-scale Noble Partner 2017 exercises will start on July 30, with the involvement of five NATO member and three ally countries.