Georgia

the Defense Forces of Georgia (DFG) are responsible for protecting the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the country; the DFG also provides units for multinational military operations abroad and supports the Border Police in border protection and civil authorities in counter-terrorist operations, if requested; it is focused primarily on Russia, which maintains military bases and troops in occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia; a five-day conflict with Russian forces in 2008 resulted in the defeat and expulsion of Georgian forces from the breakaway regions Georgia is not a member of NATO but has had a relationship with the Alliance since 1992 and declared its aspiration to join in 2002; the military is working to make itself more compatible with NATO and has participated in multinational exercises and security operations abroad with NATO, such as Afghanistan, where it was one of the top non-NATO contributors, and Kosovo; the DFG has also contributed troops to EU and UN missions (2025)

Georgian Defense Forces (GDF; aka Defense Forces of Georgia, DFG): Ground Forces, Air Force, Special Operations Forces, National Guard Ministry of Internal Affairs: Police, Border Police of Georgia, Coast Guard of Georgia (includes naval forces, which were merged with the Coast Guard in 2009) (2025)

18-35 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; conscription was abolished in 2016, but reinstated in 2017 for men 18-27 years of age; conscript service obligation is up to 11 months depending on the assigned ministry, job specialty, and if the service is carried out in a combat unit (2025)

note: conscripts serve in the Defense Forces, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or the Ministry of Corrections

the majority of the military's inventory consists of Soviet-era weapons and equipment, some of which has been upgraded; it has smaller quantities of mostly secondhand material from such countries as Israel, Poland, Türkiye, and the US, as well as some domestically produced equipment; Georgia has a small defense industry which produces such items as small arms and light armored vehicles (2025)

the Georgia Defense Forces are authorized up to 37,000 personnel (2025)