The Vaziani Military Base is located about twenty kilometers outside

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

at Latitude 41.6947 Longitude 45.0467,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Structure

The main base is spread over 10,000 hectares. The Vaziani airfield—location: —has strategic importance as its concrete landing-strip is suitable for middle ( Il-76MD) and heavy (

An-124 The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukraini ...

"Ruslan") transport aircraft.

History

Soviet and Russian period

Under the Soviet Union, it was the home base of the 171st Guards District Training Centre, originating from the

Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps The 1st Guards 'Vienna' Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. After the war it continued to serve with Soviet occupation forces in Central E ...

. The airfield was home to the 283rd Aviation Division of the

34th Air Army The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Grou ...

. The Russians retained control of a number of military bases even after Georgian independence. Vaziani was one of them, the others being

Gudauta Gudauta ( ka, გუდაუთა, ; ab, Гәдоуҭа, ''Gwdowtha''; russian: Гудаута, ''Gudauta'') is a town in Abkhazia, Georgia, and a centre of the eponymous district. It is situated on the Black Sea, 37 km northwest of Sukhu ...

Akhalkalaki Akhalkalaki ( ka, ახალქალაქი, tr; hy, Ախալքալաք / Նոր-Քաղաք, translit=Axalk’alak’ / Nor-K’aġak’) is a town in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe–Javakheti and the administrative centre of the Ak ...

and

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

. It was from Vaziani that

Igor Giorgadze Igor Panteleimonovich Giorgadze ( ka, იგორ პანტელეიმონის გიორგაძე; born 23 July 1950) is a Georgian politician-in-exile, a former Minister of State Security (1993–1995) and the current leader of th ...

was taken on a military flight to Moscow after the 1995 assassination attempt on President

Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე}, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for ...

. At the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in 1999, the Russian Federation and Georgia released a joint statement that Russian military bases at Gudauta and Vaziani would be disbanded and withdrawn by 1 July 2001. Russia finally ceded control on June 29, 2001. A battalion of Georgia's 1st Infantry Brigade,

Georgian Land Forces The Georgian Land Forces ( ka, საქართველოს სახმელეთო ძალები) are the land force component of the Defense Forces of Georgia. They are the largest branch of the military and constitute the bulk o ...

, then took possession.

Government control

In July 2008, it was the site of

Immediate Response 2008 According to United States European Command, Immediate Response is an annual, bilateral security cooperation exercise conducted between U.S. and NATO and coalition partners. It is a longstanding Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed exercise focused on ...

, which were U.S. training operations for Georgian forces. It was bombed in 2008 during the

Russo-Georgian War The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...

. The Vaziani military base with its training areas has been chosen as a site for the construction of one of the planned joint NATO-Georgia training centers codenamed JTEC in accordance to the Wales Summit 2014 agreement on enhancing education and training cooperation between Georgia and NATO. During exercise "Noble Partner 2015", a rifle company of the US

173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team The 173rd Airborne Brigade ("Sky Soldiers") is an airborne infantry brigade combat team (IBCT) of the United States Army based in Vicenza, Italy. It is the United States European Command's conventional airborne strategic response force for Eur ...

and a mechanized company of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division deploying

M2 Bradley The M2 Bradley, or Bradley IFV, is an American infantry fighting vehicle that is a member of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle family. It is manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, which was formerly United Defense. The Bradley is designed for ...

s – 14 in total, participated in a joint mechanized infantry manoeuver alongside their Georgian counterparts, who on their side deployed the

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

For "Noble Partner 2016", which took place in May 2016 on the Vaziani training area, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

deployed an armored unit of

M1 Abrams The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense (now General Dynamics Land Systems) and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest ta ...

tanks. File:US Navy 050919-F-5789F-163 U.S. Navy medical technicians assess an injured civilian during a simulated man-made disaster.jpg,

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

medical technician A medical laboratory scientist (MLS) or clinical laboratory scientist (CLS) or medical technologist (MT) performs diagnostic testing of blood and body fluids in clinical laboratories. The scope of a medical laboratory scientist's work begins wit ...

s assess an injured civilian during a simulated

man-made disaster Anthropogenic hazards are hazards caused by human action or inaction. They are contrasted with natural hazards. Anthropogenic hazards may adversely affect humans, other organisms, biomes, and ecosystems. They can even cause an omnicide. The fre ...

during RESCUER/MEDCUER 05(RM 05). The annual exercise is designed to improve interoperability among the 17 participating countries by conducting crisis response, disaster relief, consequence management, and humanitarian assistance operations. (September 19, 2005) File:Urban Operations Exercise at Vaziani Training Area during Noble Partner 18 (2018-08-06).webm, 1-

171 Year 171 (Roman numerals, CLXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Herennianus (or, less frequently, year 92 ...

Georgia National Guard The Georgia National Guard is the National Guard of the U.S. state of Georgia, and consists of the Georgia Army National Guard and the Georgia Air National Guard. (The Georgia State Defense Force is the third military unit of the Georgia Depar ...

and 2nd CR conduct a combined urban operations exercise with

Georgian Special Forces The Georgian Special Operations Forces (GSOF) ( ka, სპეციალური ოპერაციების ძალები) are the special operations forces component of the Defense Forces of Georgia. They have been established to c ...

, German 37th Panzergrenadier Brigade, and the

Ukrainian Naval Infantry The Ukrainian Naval Infantry Corps ( uk, Морська піхота України, translit=Morsʹka pikhota Ukrayiny), also known as the Ukrainian Marines, is part of coastal defense troops of the Ukrainian Navy. It is used as a component part o ...

at Vaziani Training Area, Georgia Aug. 6, 2018 as part of Exercise Noble Partner 18.

References

External links

{{commons category, Vaziani Military Base
The Jamestown Foundation

OSCE Istanbul Document 1999
Military installations of Georgia (country)