TBILISI. Dec 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian Defense Ministry has started recruiting reservists for training under the new program of U.S. military aid to the Georgian army.
"We are planning to select 800 reservists aged under 30 within three weeks. Only 550 to 600 of them will remain after training," Brigadier General Vakhtang Kapnadze, Georgian Armed Forces chief-of-staff, told reporters on Tuesday.
The selected reservists will take a three-month training course in the Krtsanisi training center not far from Tbilisi, and those who succeed in training will be offered military contracts.
"These servicemen will join the 11th and 21st motorized rifle brigades of the Georgian Defense Ministry," Kapnadze said.
Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze told reporters on Monday that the U.S. plans to assign $60 million for the year-long training of four Georgian army battalions. The Pentagon previously assigned $64 million for the Train and Equip Program, under which four special-purpose army battalions and several units of other law-enforcement agencies were trained.