“Anyone can take their own car and hang armor on it in the workshop. That's what they do. With these words, the experts evaluated the novelty of the Georgian defense industry, presented at the parade in Tbilisi. The main goal of the innovation is to demonstrate the powerful industrial potential of the Georgian defense industry.
A military parade was held in Tbilisi on Thursday, during which Georgian-made military equipment was demonstrated for the first time.
According to Novosti-Georgia, units of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd infantry brigades of the Georgian Ministry of Defense marched in front of the government and the guests. brigade, which in 2007 was also prepared to participate in the operation in Iraq, and in August 2008 was deployed for hostilities against Russian troops.
After the walking columns passed by the spectators, military equipment went. The march was started by the Georgian armored personnel carriers "Didgori" (named after the place where the Georgians won the greatest military victory in their history).
The Ministry of Defense of the country reported that two types of vehicles were presented at the parade: "Didgori-1" and "Didgori-2". They differ in capacity and armament - MINIGUN or a machine gun of 12, 7 caliber. The weight of the vehicles is about 7 tons, the armor of the vehicles protects against hits from small arms. The capacity is from seven to nine people.
The vehicles, the Defense Ministry said, are being assembled at the Tbilisi Tank Plant, taking into account modern international standards. Especially so that journalists and guests could examine them, the passage of the column was suspended. President Mikheil Saakashvili stepped down from the podium, personally inspected one of the vehicles and spoke to the crew.
After heavy armored vehicles and artillery systems, aircraft took part in the parade. Aviation was represented by helicopters UH-1H (Iroquois), Mi-8, Mi-24, fighters I-39 - Albatross, Su-25, Interfax reports.
It should be noted that there has never been a plant for the production of tanks in Tbilisi. We are talking about a tank repair plant.
“Anyone can take his own car and hang armor on it in the workshop,” Konstantin Sivkov, first vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, commented to the VZGLYAD newspaper. - They do so, that is, it's all at the level of handicraft production. They do not have the capacity for serious production, and most importantly, there are no engineering and design personnel - they all fled.
There was a wonderful Kutaisi Automobile Plant where KAZ cars were made. By 1993, he was completely defeated. I don't think there was anything better with the tank factory. What can be said about the tank plant, which stood for 20 years, was plundered during the time of Gamsakhurdia, uses the old technical base, its capacities are very limited both in terms of volume and quality of products. In the best case, this enterprise is capable of producing such vehicles, adapted from civilians for the military sphere,”he said.
“They could just as well have taken a car service and done something on its basis,” the expert continued. - But they took the building of this enterprise, probably bought new machines and designed something there. The main thing here is to demonstrate that there is at least something. They do not have their own small arms - even to equip this machine with machine guns, they are not, they are not produced, ammunition is not produced. As for the armor, we have private firms making cash-in-transit vehicles, then they can also be called a military vehicle. Is it possible to use a collector vehicle, even if it has a high cross-country ability, for conducting combined arms reconnaissance in the event of serious opposition?"
“We are talking about a lightly armored SUV based on a Ford car, apparently with a reinforced suspension,” concluded Sivkov. - I do not think that it differs in any special tactical and technical characteristics. The machine is armored against bullets of caliber 7, 6 mm and less. Apparently, an engine with a capacity of about 150 hp is used there. sec., which provides a speed of the order of 80-90 km / h, if not less. The cross-country ability is very limited, given that the undercarriage is practically a passenger car. This is a machine for solving problems of a limited sabotage and reconnaissance nature, nothing more. In Libya, they put machine guns on jeeps. It's the same here."
Didgori - A New Era of the Georgian Military Industry
The main surprise was the Didgori armored vehicles assembled in Tbilisi. This statement was made by the editor-in-chief of the military-analytical magazine "Arsenal" Irakli Aladashvili.
According to him, "Didgori" is assembled on the basis of a pickup truck of the American Ford type.
“The assembly process took place at the Tbilisi Aviation Plant since the beginning of 2011. The pickups were also armored and equipped with a six-barreled American Minigun machine gun. The assembly process continues, Aladashvili said.
The expert notes that Didgori can be used for reconnaissance purposes or as an armored personnel carrier. In terms of class, they are close to the Turkish "Cobras" purchased earlier by Georgia.
Created 2 versions of Didgori. One is transport and the other is reconnaissance. In terms of comfort, it bypasses both "Cobras" and "Wolves"
On the machine, you can install 2 versions of the M-134 minigun and 12.7mm NSV Utes machine gun.
In general, the car was developed exclusively for the needs of the Georgian military.
I am very glad that Georgia has begun such an important process - the production of national military equipment. Whether this will be a one-off phenomenon or just the first steps in this area, time will tell. In the meantime, I congratulate all the patriots of Georgia. This is a very important fact in our recent history!
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