Georgia begins rearmament with NATO standard weapons. According to the press service of the Georgian Ministry of Defense, units of the country's Defense Forces began to receive American light machine guns M249 caliber 5,56 mm.
On Wednesday, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Garibashvili, together with the commander of the Georgian Defense Forces, Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, personally supervised the rearmament process, visiting the military base in Vaziani.
The military department of Georgia emphasized, that rearmament is being carried out with the support of the United States. At the first stage, units will be re-equipped with M249 machine guns, already trained under a joint program with the United States called GDRP (Georgia Defense Readiness Program), as well as exercise command and military education units.
Under this program, six battalions have already been trained in the Georgian army., preparations for the seventh. In total, within the framework of the GDRP, it is planned to train and equip nine Georgian mobile battalions according to NATO standards.
In June of this year, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated, that the Georgian army is switching to NATO standards. During this transition, the combat units of the Georgian Defense Forces will be re-equipped with American-made M-4 automatic rifles., and will also receive other modern weapons of the NATO standard.
