Defence Forces of Georgia

Defence Forces of Georgia
საქართველოს თავდაცვის ძალები
Flag of the Georgian Defence Forces
Coat of arms of the Georgian Defence Forces
Founded	30 April 1991
Current form	December 2018
Service branches	Land Forces Air Force National Guard
Headquarters	Tbilisi, Georgia
Website	mod.gov.ge
Leadership
Commander-in-chief	President Salome Zurabishvili
Prime Minister	Irakli Kobakhidze
Minister of Defence	Irakli Chikovani
Chief of Defence Forces	Maj. Gen. Giorgi Matiashvili[1]
Personnel
Military age	18–65 years old
Conscription	18 years of age, 12 months
Available for military service	2,156,000, age 18–65 (2019 est.)
Fit for military service	1,023,400 male, age 18–65 (2019 est.)
Reaching military age annually	49,751 (2019 est.)
Active personnel	37,000[2]
Reserve personnel	27,000 (Active as of 2023) 23,000 (Specialist as of 2023) 155,500 (territorial reserve as of 2024)
Deployed personnel	Central African Republic, Mali
Expenditure
Budget	1.612 Billion GEL (2024)[3] 764,000,000 USD (2024)
Percent of GDP	1.577% (2024)
Industry
Domestic suppliers	Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing TAM Management Scientific Technical Center Delta Tbilisi Tank Factory Delta CAA Tactical Delta WB
Foreign suppliers	Austria  Bulgaria  Czech Republic  France  Germany  Israel  Italy  Japan  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  United States Former:  Russia  Belarus  Ukraine
Related articles
History	Military history of Georgia List of wars involving Georgia
Ranks	Georgian military ranks

Defence Forces of Georgia
Flag of Georgia Emblem of Defence Forces
Executive
Ministry of Defence
Staff
General Staff of the Defence Forces
Military service commands
East Command of Defence Forces West Command of Defence Forces Aviation and Air Defence Command National Guard of Georgia
Functional combatant commands
Special Operations Forces Force Logistic Support Command Training and Military Education Command Military Intelligence Department of Defence Forces of Georgia Military Police Department
MoD departments and organizations
List LEPL Cyber Security Bureau STC Delta General Inspection of MoD LEPL Giorgi Abramishvili Military Hospital of MoD
v t e

The Defence Forces of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს თავდაცვის ძალები, romanized: sakartvelos tavdatsvis dzalebi), or Georgian Defence Forces (GDF), are the combined military forces of Georgia, tasked with the defence of the nation's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. They consist of the Land Force, Air Force, National Guard, and Special Operations Forces. The Defence Forces are under overall leadership of the Minister of Defence of Georgia and directly headed by the Chief of Defence Forces.

The first regular military was established in the first Georgian Republic in 1918 and was in existence until after the republic's overthrow by the invading Soviet Russian forces in 1921. The modern Georgian military were founded in accordance with the government decree of 24 April 1991. 30 April, the day when the first conscripts were called up for military service in 1991, has been celebrated as the day of the Georgian military forces.^[4]

The Georgian military have fought in the civil war and separatist conflicts in the 1990s and the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 as well as major international military missions such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Georgia was one of the first former Soviet republics to join the NATO Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) in 2004 and has sought to bring its military in line with the NATO standards.