The Georgian Air Force is the air arm

Air force

An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...

 of the Georgian Armed Forces. Currently, it has 2,971 military and civilian personnel, fixed wing aircraft (Su-25KM/UB, L-39, Yak-52), helicopters of different types (Mi-24, Mi-8, UH-1H, Mi-2) and air defense missiles of the "surface-to-air" class. The Air Force was founded in 1991 in the wake of the break-up of the Soviet Union. In 1995 the Air Force had around 1,000 personnel and since that time it has had relatively modest growth compared to the Georgian Army which has had greater investment.

Mission and objectives

Main objectives of the Georgian Air Force are:

• Warfare and mobilization readiness of the Air Forces sub-units
• Protection of sovereignty and control of the air space of Georgia
• The fight against air terrorism
• Participate in the fight against terrorism on land and at sea
• Air defence of state entities and troops
• Destruction of land and naval targets at the enemy's front line and tactical inmost. Providing air support for friendly land and naval forces
• Participation in collective and multinational exercises.

Functions of the Georgian Air Forces:

• Troops and military cargo transportation
• Crashed down air crew searching and rescuing
• Air transportation of sick and wounded people
• Participation in rescue operations
• Informing the leadership of the Air Force and the Army about enemy air assaults
• Destruction of enemy manpower, land and naval targets
• Air forces landing
• Performing air reconnaissance

The two major airfields are located near Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

 at Alekseevka and Marneuli

Marneuli

Marneuli is a small city in the Kvemo Kartli region of southern Georgia and administrative center of Marneuli District that borders neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.-Population:...

. The Georgian Air Force is currently undergoing a process of modernization with the help of Georgia’s NATO partners, specifically the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Plans

Georgia was planning to buy ten new cargo aircraft possibly the United States' C-130 cargo aircraft.

Aircraft inventory

! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Aircraft
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Origin
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Role
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Number
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Note
|----
! style="align: center; background: lavender;" colspan="7" | Aircraft Inventory
|----
| Su-25KM/U/UB Scorpion/'Frogfoot'
|  Georgia (country)/ Israel
| Ground Attack Aircraft/Night Attack
| 12
| 6 Night Attack “Scorpion” Upgrade, Under License of TAM
|----
| Aero L-39 Albatros
|
| Military Trainer Aircraft
| 7
| Former Soviet Union
|----
| Elbit Hermes 450

Elbit Hermes 450

-Operators: *In June 2008, Azerbaijan ordered ten Hermes 450, choosing it over other drone models because of its "'invisibility' for the enemy's anti-aircraft defense." On September 12, 2011, a UAV was reportedly shot down by the air defense arm of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army over the...

|  Israel
| Unmanned aerial vehicle
| 5
|----
| Elbit Skylark

Elbit Skylark

Elbit Systems Skylark I and Skylark II are small unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Elbit Systems.-Skylark I:Skylark I is a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle. It is designed as a manpacked system for tactical surveillance and reconnaissance. Skylark is launched by hand. The payload consists of...

|  Israel
| Unmanned aerial vehicle
| N/A
|
|----
| Mi-24V 'Hind-E'/Mi-24P 'Hind-F'

Mil Mi-24 variants

The Mi-24 went from drawing board in 1968 to first test-flights in less than eighteen months. The first models were delivered to the armed forces for evaluation in 1971. The Hind-A did have a number of problems: lateral roll, weapon sighting problems, and limited field of view for the pilot...

|  Georgia (country)/ Russia
| Attack Helicopter
| 15
| Under License of TAM
|----
| Mi-8T 'Hip-C'
|  Soviet Union
| Utility Helicopter
| 18
| Former Soviet Union
|----
| Mi-14PS 'Haze-C'

Mil Mi-14

|-See also:-External links:******...

|  Soviet Union
| Naval Helicopter
| 1
| Former Soviet Union
|----
| UH-1H Iroquois
|  United States
| Utility Helicopter
| 26
|
|}

Weapon	Type
Air Defense Weapons
SA-18 Grouse SA-18 Grouse The 9K38 Igla is a Russian/Soviet man-portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile . "9K38" is the Russian GRAU designation of the system...	MANPADS
SA-7 Grail	MANPADS
Grom (missile) Grom (missile) The Grom is a man-portable air-defense system produced in Poland. It consists of a 72 mm anti-aircraft missile set with a flight speed of 650 m/s, as well as a single-use launcher, re-usable gripstock and thermal battery coolant assembly electric unit...	MANDPAS
9K33	Amphibious SAM
SPYDER SPYDER The SPYDER is an anti-aircraft missile system developed by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which is fitted atop a Czech Tatra truck...	Medium Range SAM
Buk M1	Medium Range SAM
S-125 S-125 The Isayev S-125 Neva/Pechora Soviet surface-to-air missile system was designed to complement the S-25 and S-75. It has a shorter effective range and lower engagement altitude than either of its predecessors and also flies slower, but due to its two-stage design it is more effective against more...	Strategic SAM
57 mm AZP S-60 57 mm AZP S-60 57 mm AZP S-60 ; literally: Automatic anti-aircraft gun S-60) is a Soviet towed, road-transportable, short- to medium-range, single-barrel anti-aircraft gun from the 1950s. The gun was extensively used in Warsaw Pact, Middle Eastern and South-East Asian countries.-History:In the late 1940s, the...	Auto Cannon
ZSU-23-4 ZSU-23-4 The ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" is a lightly armored, self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system . ZSU stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka , meaning "anti-aircraft self-propelled mount". The "23" signifies the bore diameter in millimeters. The "4" signifies the number of gun barrels. It...	Self-propelled AA gun
Bombs and Missiles
Mark 82 bomb Mark 82 bomb The Mark 82 is an unguided, low-drag general-purpose bomb, part of the U.S. Mark 80 series. The explosive filling is tritonal.-Development and deployment:...	Low-Drag General Purpose (LDGP) bomb
Mark 83 bomb Mark 83 bomb The Mark 83 is part of the Mark 80 series of low-drag general-purpose bombs in United States service.-Development & deployment:The nominal weight of the bomb is 1,000 lb , although its actual weight varies between 985 lb and 1,030 lb , depending on fuze options, and fin configuration...	Low-Drag General Purpose (LDGP) bomb
GBU-16	Laser-Guided bomb
Python 5	Short-range air-to-air missile
R-73 AA-11 Archer	Short-range air-to-air missile
Kh-29 Kh-29 The Kh-29 is a Soviet air-to-surface missile with a range of 10–30 km. It has a large warhead of 320 kg, has a choice of laser, infrared, active radar or TV guidance, and is typically carried by tactical aircraft such as the Su-24, Su-30, MiG-29K as well as the "T/TM" models of the...	air-to-surface TV guided Missile