By an OGJ correspondent
NICOSIA, Jan.7 -- The government of Georgia signed an agreement with Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles, to develop an aerial surveillance system to monitor the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export pipeline and its adjacent area.
Giorgi Chanturia, president of Georgian International Oil Corp., said Georgia would receive radar configurations similar to those used currently by the US in Afghanistan.
US officials allocated $11 million to Georgia to form a 400-member special military unit to protect the BTC pipeline, Chanturia said.
The rapid reaction unit would consist of Georgian military personnel trained by US instructors under a US program for development of anti-terrorist forces.
One 500-member unit has already been trained under this program, while a second group, the Sachkhere mountain rifle battalion, is to commence training Jan. 15.
Ground was broken for the BTC pipeline last September, and Georgia approved construction of the pipeline segment through its territory Dec. 1.
The Georgia government is plagued by separatist elements in Abhkazia, South Ossetia, and Ajaria, as well as terrorists from neighboring Chechnya where a war of independence has been waged against Russia since the early 1990s.