Military hardware from NATO members and partner countries has arrived in Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti for the upcoming Noble Partner defence exercise launching on Sunday, agenda.ge reports.

For the first time, armoured fighting vehicles from the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, will be used in the 12-day drills held at the Vaziani and Camp Norio training areas outside capital Tbilisi.

The German hardware arriving at Poti included the Boxer multirole vehicle, while M1 Abrams main battle tanks as well as Bradley and Stryker armoured fighting vehicles of the United States Army also arrived from port of Burgas, Bulgaria.

Vehicles set to be used in Noble Partner have been arriving in Georgia since July 21, while main forces of the exercise will begin to arrive starting Tuesday.

This year's event will aim to support training, evaluation and eventual certification of a Georgian Armed Forces' light infantry company for the NATO Response Force (NRF) roster.

Georgia already contributes one infantry company to the NRF along with other NATO partner countries that are not members of the alliance.

Noble Partner 2017 will also involve command and control exercises for brigade-sized and smaller units, while also focusing on cooperation and interoperability between forces from partner nations.

News.Az