The "Shavnabada" Light Infantry Battalion was established with the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union in 1991.

It saw combat in Abkhazia in the course of the 1992-93 war conducting an amphibious assault against Gagra from the Black Sea.

In 2003, the battalion received Georgia Train and Equip Program (GTEP) from the U.S. Marine Corps.

More than 90 percent of the soldiers served in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) in 2005 with the United States Army's 3rd Infantry Division in the Green Zone of Baghdad.

Many are also veterans of fighting a guerilla insurgency in the South Ossetia region of the country in October 2004.