Georgian peacekeepers train in Georgia for first time ahead of Afghan deployment
The Mission Readiness Exercise is the concluding part of a four-month-long training for the peacekeeping deployment to Afghanistan. Screenshot from Ministry of Defence of Georgia video.
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Georgian peacekeeping troops are undergoing their final exercises before deploying to NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Georgia for the first time, with the Mission Readiness Exercise testing their preparedness for serving in the next round of tours in Afghanistan.
The 13th Infantry Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade - the unit set for Afghan deployment during the next planned rotation - is involved in drills at the Vaziani Training Area outside capital Tbilisi, marking the first time a Georgian Defence Forces unit has been able to do their final exercise for the RSM deployment in Georgia.
The training process has seen the battalion employ its detachments in tasks including Cordon and Search, Base Defence and rescue operations for injured personnel. Until now the Georgian units preparing for the NATO mission used to run these and other tasks at the US Army Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, with the Ministry of Defence of Georgia covering the costs for their training.
For the first time, the final stage of the pre-deployment training of our troops for #NATO's @ResoluteSupport Mission is conducted in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/gOSfgXUrpx
— MOD Georgia (@ModGovGe) June 9, 2020
The ministry said in its announcement of the Georgian-hosted drills - launched on June 5 and scheduled to run until June 15 - they showed the country had "resource and ability to successfully conduct international-level drills on the Georgian territory".
The MREs are the concluding part of a four-month intensive preparation for the deployment in Afghanistan and involve around 600 troops overseen by Observer/Controllers from the GDF and their United States Marine Corps partners.
In Georgia the drills are held by the Peace Keeping Operations Training Center - a structure operating under the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre near Tbilisi - along with the USMC. In Germany, MREs for the Resolute Support Mission have involved around 18,000 Georgian troops.
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A Georgian soldier who became seriously ill while serving in the NATO Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan has been brought back to his homeland by the German air forces, the German Embassy to Georgia has told IPN.
Twenty-eight Georgian soldiers from NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan have tested positive for the coronavirus and have been brought home with the help of the German Air Force earlier today, the Georgian Defence Ministry reports. The ministry says that an Afghan personnel was the source of the infection. The soldiers, who are undergoing treatment in Gori military hospital of central Georgia, suffer from a mild form of the virus, doctors say.
Ten more Georgian soldiers have tested positive for the coronavirus in Afghanistan and have been transported home to Georgia by the German Air Force earlier today. Twenty-eight other Georgian soldiers in the NATO Resolute Support Mission tested positive for the virus on July 10. Eight of the 28 soldiers, who underwent treatment in Gori hospital of central Georgia, have already recovered. The Georgian Defence Ministry says that all the 38 soldiers belong to one cluster that an Afghan personnel was the source of the infection.
A company-sized unit of the Georgian Defence Forces is on its way to get involved in NATO's Resolute Support peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, marking the latest rotational deployment of troops from Georgia in the effort.