Analyst Challenges MoD’s Claims on Faulty APCs

Military analyst Irakli Aladashvili suggested in his article published by Kviris Palitra weekly on September 26 that 38 infantry combat vehicles – BMP-2 – of the Georgian Armed Forces are out of order as a result of improper use. This suggestion conflicts with the official version of the Defense Ministry, that vehicles were faulty at the time of purchase from Ukraine last year.
 
On September 22 the military police arrested three ex-officials from the Defense Ministry’s logistics department and charged them with abuse of office. Ex-chief of the logistics department of the Defense Ministry Mamuka Lomsadze and two other employees of the same department – Davit Natroshvili and Besarion Bukvaidze – whom the court sentenced to three-month pre-trial detention on September 23, were in charge of the procurement of 40 BMP-2s.

“A team from the Georgian Defense Ministry arrived in Ukraine last October. The team has organized purchase of 10 armored vehicles – BTR-80 from the Nikolaev Factory. After this deal the team departed to the city of Zhitomir in an attempt to choose 40 infantry combat vehicles from the local factory. The process lasted till December, 2004… After being repaired the vehicles were tested by the Georgian commission. In this process of testing each of the vehicles run at least 100 kilometers,” Irakli Aladashvili says in the article.

The author also says that Col. Levan Nikolaishvili, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, who then was deputy chief of staff, was in charge of overseeing the logistics, “hence he was responsible for inspecting the equipment purchased abroad.”

The fact that new infantry combat vehicles were faulty was revealed only this July, during the large-scale tank drills, codenamed Armor-2005, which took place at the Orpolo training ground. This discovery was made several months after the purchase.

According to the Georgian Defense Ministry there are 38 faulty vehicles out of 40 purchased from Ukraine. But the military analyst claims that the number is exaggerated and there are only 11 vehicles with serious flaws. Irakli Aladashvili also said that lack of professionalism of the combat crew resulted into improper use of BMP-2s which in turn triggered vehicles’ breakdown.

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