Third Georgian Battalion Graduates GTEP

(Tbilisi, August 30, 2003, Civil Georgia) – Today Kojori Special Operations Unit officially graduates US-funded Train-and-Equip Program (GTEP).

The military instructors from the US Marine Task Force trained the third battalion in the frames of the GTEP. 

The trained soldiers will be contracted for three-and-a-half years and receive highest salaries in the Georgian army.

The GTEP, for which the US Government has allocated 64 million dollars, started last May.

So far the Command & Control Center, 11th Brigade Commando Battalion and Sachkhere 16th Mountain Battalion of the National Guard were trained and equipped along with the Kojori Special O!
perations Unit.
 
The US military instructors will train the tank and mechanized infantry unit as well in the frames of the GTEP.

The Georgian Defense Ministry and the American military instructors say that the program is implemented without delays and will end in 2004 as scheduled.

Related Stories:
Second US-Trained Battalion on Guard
Col. Otar Shalikashvili on Details of the Train-and-Equip Program

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