Defence Forces of Georgia

The Defence Forces of Georgia, also called the Georgian Defence Forces, are the combined military forces of Georgia, tasked with defending the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. They consist of the Land Force, Air Force, National Guard and Special Operations Forces, and they are under the Minister of Defence of Georgia and directly headed by the Chief of Defence Forces. A first regular military existed in the first Georgian Republic from 1918 until Soviet Russian forces overthrew it in 1921; the modern force was founded by government decree on 24 April 1991, and 30 April, the day the first conscripts were called up, is celebrated as its day. From 1992 it received units and equipment of the former Transcaucasian Military District, and it fought the Georgian Civil War, the South Ossetia War of 1991 to 1992, the War in Abkhazia and, in 2008, the Russo-Georgian War, after which Georgia lost control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has since been reformed toward NATO standards and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.