According to the documents of the Georgian Ministry of Defense, in 2008 the enemy could not fully achieve its goal and the risk of novel Russian aggression is still there. The war in Ukraine has made it even more apparent to us.
The members of the Government assure us that the threat of war has been resolved, but the devil never sleeps. Moreover, he is residing in the Kremlin attempting his evil deeds on us for more than two centuries.
As the 2008 war proved, while the current events in Ukraine confirmed, proper air defense and aviation are crucial in such conflicts. Moreover, research over numerous months by iFact showed that our government has no perception of it, even after 14 years of war. When working on this article, we talked to the active and former military servicemen, as well as the former senior officials of the Ministry of Defense. Their narrative shows that the government has not cared much about creating a properly functional and equipped air defense system with trained personnel.
Furthermore, instead of ensuring technical support, they have even contributed to the depletion of human resources. Our experienced pilots left the army. Some are serving in civil aviation now and some have left the field and the country.
This investigation cannot be based on the information from the official documents, as they are considered a state secret by the Ministry of Defense. We cannot tell you how much was spent on the maintenance and refurbishment of military equipment, but we can share the stories of the employees working in the field. According to the best journalistic standards, we consider information to be reliable with three independent sources confirming it. All information in the present article has been verified by the mentioned principle.
The safety of our source is important to us; thus, we cannot disclose the name, official position, and current place of residence of some of our respondents. In the article, only fictitious names and geographical locations are used to make the respondents unidentifiable to interested people.
From the information provided by former and active militaries it becomes clear that the number of flights was periodically reduced, the helicopters and airplanes were out of order and no maintenance was carried out after the August War. In the end, part of the aircraft fleet was removed from the MoD register and some were simply stored for future repair. The modernization of these machines started only in 2020.
Five different sources informed us that the helicopters had not flown since 2014. The crew was not performing exercise and training flights as well. Therefore, the pilots were not paid hourly remuneration either. Their certificates were losing validity due to the lack of flights. All these circumstances have led the pilots to leave the country.
Active and former employees of the Defense Forces told us that when aircraft are not operational, i.e., they cannot be used for flying and they are in such a bad condition that there is no point in repairing them and they are preserved. A former official of military aviation Rezo (the name is fictitious) is explaining that preservation has its own rules.
“The main aggregates are lubricated with fluids and lubricants and stored that way. Special preservative oils are poured into the engine. If you don’t have oils, you should run the engines once a month for them to complete the working cycle. I have no information on how the aircraft was preserved, what liquids were used”, Rezo explained.
The preservation of helicopters is also confirmed by active military Davit (the name is fictitious), who is an active serviceman of the Aviation and Air Defense Command: “I don’t know whether all the helicopters went out of order together or simply it was considered necessary or maybe there was some other political issue. However, no flights were carried out at all. Preservation means that we do not use, touch, or repair the machinery, we do not do anything at all. We just store and seal it to be kept that way.
At some point, the military servicemen tried to repair the damaged helicopters on their own. However, later this was not enough. They told us that the preservation and inoperability of the helicopters were caused by the negligence of the state.
There has been no development or progress in aviation since 2008. We could not see what we even had. We, the mechanics and technicians were not getting the necessary spare parts that need to be replaced. We had twelve [American helicopters], some were damaged by cadets during training and it was forbidden to fly them; One of them had an engine failure and went out of operation. There were two [helicopters] that could fly when I left the Defense Forces in 2018,” – said, Giorgi Kochashvili, an aircraft maintenance technician.
The former sergeant of the American helicopters, uh-1h aka Iroquois squadron, told us that the Americans should have helped us to repair damaged helicopters in 2016-2017 but this never happened. In the end, the engines and other structural parts of the aircraft reached the end of their life cycle. They were neither replaced nor repaired, thus went out of service and eventually had to be preserved.
“There was a time when we had 7 active aircraft. When all the resources were exhausted, only then did the talks about how we can put them back into service start. A group from the American National Guard arrived in Georgia, examined, assessed, and estimated the costs. They said that they could reassemble and upgrade 6 helicopters with new engines. Mr. Izoria was the Minister of Defense at the time if I am not mistaken” – Mchedlishvili said.
Mchedlishvili told us that still functional parts of one helicopter were installed on another to extend the aircraft’s lifespan this way. This method was called “cannibalization”. “We tried to make the minimum resource so that those two or three helicopters to be able to perform some tasks when needed. In the end, the number of helicopters went down from seven to two.” – Mchedlishvili said.
Shall we spend money on modernizing the aircraft fleet?
The Ministry of Defense decided to renovate the preserved aircraft fleet two years ago. Su-25 aircraft and Mi-24 attack helicopters were completely dismantled and their overhaul began in the summer, of 2020. Delta and Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing [TAM] are working on the renovation of the aircraft fleet. Later, it was decided to rehabilitate and renew American Iroquois uh-1 helicopters, jet trainers L-39, and Mi-8 transport helicopters. The Ministry does not disclose information on repair costs.
In an interview with iFact, the defense policy planning specialist and active military servicemen expressed the opinion that spending money on repairing aircraft is not a priority for now. It is better to pay attention to strengthening air defense considering the terrain and the geopolitical situation.
According to them considering the 2008 war experience, the planes will be unable to do anything if the adversary bombs the runway. Russian bombers can be destroyed by anti-aircraft systems. At present, we have this technique, but in small quantities and with not very efficient combat characteristics.
It should also be taken into account that under the constitution, Georgia conducts defensive warfare, we only have defensive forces. It is unlikely an air attack order to be issued, so specialists do not consider it appropriate to spend money on the modernization of jet aircraft Su-25.
“For example, MiG-29 jet fighter is air defense aviation used to gain air superiority. It has air-to-air missiles i.e.; it raises in the air and fights. We don’t have this type of jet fighter and it would be a luxury to have one. It’s not bad to modernize Su-25 but if we talk about priorities air defense should be the one,” – an active member of the Air Defense Command, Davit said.
Lasha Dzebisashvili also does not see any sense in strengthening the bomber aviation. He worked at the MoD from 2003-2012 and from 2017-2019 in the field of defense policy planning. According to Dzebisashvili, the aim of the Air Force should be to gain air superiority, but this is impossible against Russia.
Naturally, a question appears as to why we are spending money on restoring some systems if during a war their efficiency will amount to zero. The process of analysis is important to decide where to spend the scarce financial resources. Do we need to repair those expensive Su-25 jet aircraft with a high probability of failure to take off considering that even if they take off, they soon might be destroyed? Or, we could use this money to strengthen the air defense, increase and better equip the units?” – Dzebisashvili said.
According to respondents of iFact, the lack of air defense systems was the primary headache during August War while being unable to effectively use aviation. Soon after the war started Russia bombed aerodromes and runways so the jets could not engage in combat operations. Had we had more air defense systems, bombing the runways could have been avoided.
“The jet bombers, Su-25, did not take off in 2008, but some of the helicopters did. The whole air defense was deployed near the outskirts of Tskhinvali according to the order issued. We could not afford to leave some parts of the fleet at the other locations for instance to prevent the bombing of Kopitnari runway,” – active serviceman of Aviation and Air Defense Combat, Davit said.
The Defense Forces of Georgia could block the sky with three types of surface-to-air missile systems in 2008. These were Buk and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems purchased from Ukraine, as well as the SPYDER mobile air defense system purchased from an Israeli factory. However, the quantity was very small.
Buk was the most effective among them, as it shot down the highest-flying strategic bomber. The range of Buk was up to 35 km with an altitude from 15 to 17 km. We also used the SPYDER bought in Israel effectively, however, it only had 1 battery and could not work higher than Buk.
“Most aircraft were shot down in the first days of the war. After the Russian aviation learned from practice that aircraft at low altitude could have been easily taken down, of course, the flight altitude was increased, thus leaving Israeli aircraft and Osa designed for low altitude targets useless.”- active serviceman of Aviation and Air Defense Combat, Davit said.
Later, Russian aircraft started to fly at higher altitudes. Buk engaged in combat, but soon we lost efficiency due to a lack of missiles.
“In the first days of the war, Buks worked for a while and not too bad, but then we run out supplies. We had 3 Buk batteries mainly defending Tbilisi; Even though we had only one SPYDER battery, we made good use of it. It was a serious matter that we took down the strategic bomber Tu-22. This had never happened in our history,” – said Batu Kutelia, Deputy Minister of Defense of Georgia in 2007-2008.
However, Russian aircraft can fly even higher ranges. Long-range combat means that aircraft are flying high above the ground and this requires long-range anti-aircraft systems. Buk is not suitable for this purpose, as they are designed for medium-range combat.
Considering lessons learned from war, we need an even more powerful and long-range combat system than the Buk to succeed in air combat with Russia.
Are the French Mistrals useful to us?
In 2008, Georgia purchased the defense system – Mistral Atlas under the contract concluded with France.
The function is to damage or take aircraft down with a surface-to-air, fire-and-forget missile. This means that after the missile is fired, the operator can move immediately without waiting to see if the target is hit by it or not. For instance, Buk does not have this function, as it’s a laser missile and requires to be controlled by an operator.
Mistral Atlas is a twin launcher, which is vehicle mounted but can be easily transported. If necessary, Mistral Atlas can be deployed ground or on top of a building. It can be operated even by one specialist familiar with the air defense system. Mistral Atlases are on combat duty now, which means that they are deployed at a specific location to protect the sky there.
We reviewed the combat characteristics of the Mistral Atlas at the manufacturer’s website. According to MBDA data, Mistral Atlas’s maximum intercept range is 7.5 kilometers, so this is a close-range anti-aircraft system.
We asked field experts about the effectiveness of the system and whether it was a priority to purchase them to strengthen air defense considering that this was the first significant purchase after the August War.
“Since 2008, nothing had happened either in air defense or in aviation for at least 10 years. We had not purchased anything. In fact, after the war, we were out of any combat capacity. The talks started in 2018 and French solutions appeared,” – an active serviceman of Aviation and Air Defense Combat, Davit said.
According to the iFact’s sources, Mistral Atlas cannot be effective against Russian jet aircraft, unless they fly at low altitudes. The French solution can only detect and damage an object at a low altitude of 3 km and a range of 7.5 km. The experience from August War shows that the Russian fighter jets can fly above 10 km altitude. Buk could fight against them as its altitude exceeds 10 km. Mistrals replaced Buks after 2018, a decision that the experts do not consider as reasonable.
Buk missile supplies were not replenished. In fact, the solution is there (though partially damaged), but we lack the ammunition. Therefore, Buk was removed from combat duty and replaced with the French solution,”- Davit told us.
According to Davit, Buk is stronger than Mistral, it shoots further and more effectively, and it burns and destroys the object in the air. Mistral can only damage the aircraft and interfere with its mission.
“The Mistrals are quite good against helicopters or for cases when the Russian pilot has a problem and comes down to take a look or during dive bombing when the aircraft descends as low as possible to the ground. In the case of Buk, the trinitrotoluene explodes and the explosive force is so great that it destroys the aircraft. Here, this is the main thing,” – the anonymous source of iFact, an active serviceman of Aviation and Air Defense Combat, Davit said.
The executive director of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Irakli Lekvinadze also explains that our air defense has been weakened by replacing the Buks with the Mistrals. This purchase was unreasonable as we already had a system with similar capabilities.
Buk is a completely different system, as it operates at a medium range and altitude of 15 – 17 km. It belongs to a completely different class and the two cannot be compared. The disadvantage of Mistral is that it must be carried, i.e., it is a vehicle-mounted solution. It has no mobility of its own. If we needed a transportable solution, i.e., something carried by a vehicle, we already had the SPYDER and it far better than Mistral by all criteria,” Irakli Lekvinadze said.
The weakest model of SPYDER has a longer operating distance compared to Mistral. It can destroy aircraft at a range of 18 km and an altitude of 9 km according to the manufacturer’s published description.
According to the former high-ranking Military aviation serviceman, fictitiously Rezo, the Ministry of Defense of Georgia takes no account of the lessons learned during the war taking no steps to adequately respond to the enemy’s capabilities.
“What was a breaking point for us in 2008? Russian aviation. Our aviation which the Russians could not destroy was destroyed by our bureaucrats with pen and paper. This is our misfortune. Even today some people say that we don’t need aviation; air defense is not a priority, let’s move on to mobile special task forces. Modern equipment detects and destroys the special task forces from the air. How shall we fight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and Russian jet fighters?! The purchased Mistrals are short-range solutions,” – he said.
According to the experts, the purchase of French Mistrals was not a prudent move, as France is not our strategic partner. The experts think that when purchasing weapons, special attention needs to be paid to the manufacturer.
“At least it is risky to depend on and entrust one of the most important sectors, such as air defense to the French, considering the scenario that Le Pen can be elected, who embraces Russia and craves for better relations with it rather than the NATO member countries,” – The executive director of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Irakli Lekvinadze said.
A former colonel in reserve, Akia Barbakadze thinks that it would have been better to sign such a significant contract with our strategic partner, the Unites State which would result in more reliability and strengthening of future relations.
“If the United States is our strategic partner, why did not we buy the equipment from them? Is the French one better in terms of quality or price? We should have considered two circumstances, what weapons our strategic partner holds and where are its nearest bases located, for example, what ammunition is available in Turkey,”- Barbakadze told us.
Former Deputy Minister of Defense Batu Kutelia explained that concluding the agreement with France is risky, as, in case of intervention from Russia, they may stop supplying us.
“When we bought the drones and artillery from Israel, Moscow summoned the Israeli attaché and told him that in case of selling weapons to Georgia, Russia would renew supplying Hamas with weapons. When you are aware that this was the case with Israel, which usually has a greater degree of independence, why are you buying the weapons from France? Moreover, France sold the Mistral to Russia after the war. When you have the US radio communication and combat systems, you are on missions with Americans, why are you buying French ones?! What is the explanation for this?”- Batu Kutelia said.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the project on Enhancing Air Defense Capabilities of Georgia between Georgia and France was implemented in two stages. The first phase has already been completed and the second phase is in the final stage. The Ministry replied that the amount was paid in 6 tranches in 2016-2021 according to the signed contract, but they did not specify the cost.
How did military aviation lose its professional staff?
Together with the nonfunctional technical equipment the outflow of pilots from the army has become a problem. The active and former servicemen of the Defense Forces told us about the mass outflow of personnel from aviation. The main reason mentioned was the inability of pilots to perform their functions. The pilot could no longer fly and the mechanic repair the aircraft.
Giorgi Mchedlishvili served in military aviation for 13 years. He was a helicopter mechanic and flew with a crew. After 2018, he had to quit as his profession was no longer needed and he felt ineffective.
It felt like a vicious circle where we were stuck in one place. We could not move forward. There were no flights and no maintenance. Nothing of special importance was happening, and we were left without any role and function. I am sure that many felt the same way as I did,” Mchedlishvili told us.
Giorgi realized that he would not be able to support his family, and this urged him to leave the homeland. His colleagues working in military aviation also found themselves in the same situation. They spoke up that if this continued, many people would leave aviation. The “superiors” did not care much about this and responded: “Leave, there is no one irreplaceable.”
“It was heartbreaking, as the army is like a family for any soldier. They spend their best years in the army and dedicate most of their time to the area, where they specialize. Actually, I had contact with my family only in the morning and in the evening. Overall, I spent the whole day in the army and it was not easy to leave this place,” Mchedlishvili told us. He has been in the US since 2019 working as a truck driver.
“Training an aviator is very expensive. Imagine that sent a pilot abroad for training, he comes back and you know what? You don’t have an aircraft that he can operate… In addition, a pilot needs to be in good physical shape, have pressure changes, and speed up the heart rate… If a pilot loses physical shape, this means that all training and finances are wasted,” – a member of the Air Defense Command, Davit told us.
Aircraft technician Giorgi Kochashvili told us that many pilots went to the US in search of some income due to unemployment. He plans to do the same. At present, he works in Poland and plans to move to the United States.
“Aviation of the Defense Forces in Georgia have lost too many pilots who emigrated from Georgia, abandoned the occupation that they loved. The equipment was out of order, they couldn’t fly anymore, they couldn’t do their job, and they decided to emigrate. They went to look after their families, they can better support their families from there rather than from here” – he said.
The executive director of the Civil-Military Relations Center, Irakli Lekvinadze says that the Ministry of Defense acts inconsistently, and does not have a specific plan for the development of aviation; pilots do not know their career advancement prospects and because of this feeling of insecurity, they give up on their profession.
“It takes years and a lot of money to train a pilot. The pilots must know their career prospects in 5-10 years. When the plans change every year, i.e., one day the planes are sold, another day they are preserved, or repaired, no consistent actions are taken, and the pilots cannot think of any career growth here and quit. It is a highly paid job and the pilot can get a job abroad. 90% of the pilots have left Georgia. They may return if they see the prospect here, “– Lekvinadze said.
iFact tried to contact those who migrated to the US and other countries to tell their stories and decisions. Most of them refused to talk about this, but some agreed to be interviewed anonymously
“Half of Malaysia [fictitiously] is full of Georgian pilots. We have been here since 2012, some have just arrived, some last year, some five years ago. There are at least 12 pilots. When you are told that aviation and pilots are not needed, what other reasons could there be? There were no flights and pilots were losing their skills and qualification”, – a former high-ranking official of military aviation, Rezo said.
Another anonymous source of iFact, Anri, who worked in military aviation for 11 years, says that in 2014-2016, a lot of Mi-8 helicopter specialists quit their jobs. The reason was the MoD decision to no longer use the Mi-8 for flights. According to Anri, about 100-120 people left military aviation during that period. They even had to break the valid contracts.
Those who stayed started operating the Iroquois. Though this is a lower-class helicopter and operating it means a kind of demotion. That’s why Anri and his colleagues preferred to leave military aviation and started to work in civil aviation. About 30 of them serve in foreign countries now.
“Mi-8 has been removed from the report card since 2012. There were talks that some foreign solutions were supposed to be imported, but this never happened. Mi-24, Mi-2, and Iroquois are put on a report card, as well as the Su-25, but not Mi-8. They are listed on the Ministry’s balance, but no longer used for flights. To be honest, nobody stopped those who decided to quit, nobody told them to stay. Everything was stopped, what could we do, fly on a broomstick?!” – Anri said in an interview with iFact.
What can the MoD afford with its limited budget?
The numbers also expose how the government of Georgia is strengthening the defense forces and preparing to counter the enemy.
The MoD budget is increasing in Georgian Lari, but not in USD. However, we have to buy weapons in USD. The defense budget was cut three times after 2008.
Former Chief of the General Staff, Vakhtang Kapanadze believes that we are unreasonably spending the limited defense budget, we only think of procurement without actually researching for what purposes we need that purchase.
“When the funding is limited, it is far important to wisely use the available money. First assessment and then procurement are mandatory steps everywhere, while we only have procurement. Assessment means to establish the life cycle of the solution, the needed spare parts, estimate the costs, the selling country, how long has it been manufacturing these spare parts and so on…. such assessments are our weakness. Basically, we just buy and bring”- Vakhtang Kapanadze said.
The former Deputy Minister of Defense of Georgia, Batu Kutelia, attributed the sharp cut in the MoD budget to the fact that authoritarian regimes are afraid of a strong defense.
“Since 2012, when the Georgian Dream came to power, they started to cut the defense budget on purpose. On the one hand, the reason is that the authoritarians do not like defense, they are love special services, but not the defense forces. They are afraid of a coup, as this is the end of any authoritarian regime. Just like Putin when he started to control the army by the FSB,” – Batu Kutelia said.
In the end, we can say that the government does not take the steps necessary to strengthen air defense and aviation, and does not adjust the armaments to the capabilities of the enemy.
iFact requested public information from the MoD on the funds spent for strengthening armaments over the years. They said that their budget was public. Though, from the documents uploaded on the website, it is impossible to understand exactly how much was spent on strengthening aviation, air defense, and military armaments.
The 2013-2021 budgets are published on the MoD website, though the provided information is superficial and scant. The 2013-2016 documents contain two budget articles of special interest: 1. The operation and maintenance costs of vehicles, equipment, and weapons, and 2. The military solution and ammunition purchase costs. As the numbers show, funding declined in both articles in 2013-2016.
In the 2017 budget, this type of cost is not separated, but new categories emerge with the following titles: Defense Capacity Development and Enhancing Defense Forces. If we convert the amount into USD, we will see that things are not going well for us.
We also applied to the MoD for an interview. We wanted to receive answers to our critical questions. They refused the face-to-face interview and requested the questions in written form, but they never responded to the questions asked.
P.S. Let’s hope that the Ukrainians completely destroy the Russian military aircraft and they will never be able to fly in the sky on this planet.
MoD Expenditure in 2013-2016 (million Laris (GEL))
The operation and maintenance costs of vehicles, equipment, and weapons
The military solution and ammunition purchase costs
Costs for Defense Capacity Development and Enhancing Defense Forces (SG)
Experienced employees left the military aviation of Georgia in past years.
Georgia needs a long-range air defense system, but the government still purchases a close-range one.
