Agile Spirit 2023 exercise launches in Georgia with airborne demonstration training
Agile Spirit, which is a Georgian Defence Forces and US Army Europe and Africa cooperatively-led, joint multinational brigade-level exercise, will end on September 1. Photo via Defence Ministry
Tweet 
Share
The 11th Agile Spirit multinational exercise in Georgia launched on Wednesday with airborne demonstration training at Vaziani military base.
The Defence Ministry said the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States Army’s European Command had conducted the first training exercises of C-17 multipurpose military transport aircraft.
At the official opening of the exercise, held at the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center, Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, the Commander of the Georgian Defence Forces and Grigol Giorgadze, the Deputy Defence Minister welcomed the participants from 21 countries in Georgia.
Photo via Defence Ministry
The US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan and the Defence Attache Colonel Joseph Bilbo also attended the event.
Agile Spirit, which is a Georgian Defence Forces and US Army Europe and Africa cooperatively-led, joint multinational brigade-level exercise, will end on September 1.
The United States Embassy in Georgia on Wednesday issued a statement on military cooperation between the two states in 2023 and stressed US-Georgia continued “to do more across a broad range of cooperative military activities”.
More than 2,400 servicemembers from 21 countries will be involved in this year’s Noble Partner defence drills in Georgia, with the exercise set to feature troops from Japan and Sweden for the first time, the Ministry of Defence of Georgia announced on Tuesday.
The cooperation between armed services of the United States and Georgia, and the ongoing transformation of the Georgian Defence Forces were discussed in a meeting between Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, the Chief of the GDF, and Major General Joseph Gerrard, the Deputy Commanding General of US Army Europe and Africa on Thursday.
Georgian and American airborne troops deployed in "scale not seen before" at the ongoing Agile Spirit multinational drills in Georgia on Sunday, with defence minister Juansher Burchuladze praising the first-ever occasion at the anniversary edition of the exercise.
Georgia will host the Agile Spirit 2021 multinational exercise next week involving 2,500 troops from 15 NATO allied and partner countries in Georgia between July 26 and August 6. Agile Spirit is a Georgian Defence Forces and US Army Europe and Africa cooperatively-led, joint multinational brigade-level exercise, incorporating a simulated command post exercise, field training, and joint multinational, battalion-level combined arms live-fire exercises.
The 11th edition of Agile Spirit 2023 multinational defence drills in Georgia have officially concluded, the Ministry of Defence of Georgia said on Friday.