The Air Defence Brigade 673 is a campaign-level anti-aircraft artillery unit under the Army Corps 2, assigned to various missions, particularly training and combat readiness. In recent years, the rapid development of military science and technology, especially the enemy’s means and modes of airborne operations has imposed new, higher requirements on air defence units in general, the Brigade in particular. Fully aware of that, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have taken breakthrough measures to ceaselessly improve the synergy and combat readiness capability, meeting the task requirements in all situations.

To start with, the Brigade has well carried out the work of political, ideological education to raise its cadres and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility towards the combat readiness mission. Its cadres and soldiers have been made fully aware that in the surface-to-air operations, situations and opportunities could come at any time. Thus, though the country is in peacetime, the Brigade always has to maintain the combat readiness extremely strictly. However, the unit is mainly staffed by professional servicepeople, many of them are in difficult circumstances while their task is very onerous, thereby greatly impacting on its troops’ ideology, sentiment and health. As a result, raising its cadres and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility is a matter of special importance. To that end, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have further introduced the Party’s military-defence guidelines and military regulations and orders on combat readiness to its troops. At the same time, the Brigade has directed its affiliates to renew and improve the form, method and quality of political, ideological education as well as to make troops clearly understand the situation, objects of struggle and their plots and artifices, nature and characteristics of airborne operations, particularly in the hi-tech warfare, and the tasks of the Brigade and the Corps in the new situation. Via the work of education, units have built up cadres and troops’ political will, raised their sense of revolutionary vigilance and combat morale, made them believe in our combat method and existing materiel, “dare to fight, determine to fight and determine to win”, and readily undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks. Prior to each high-level combat ready duty period, the Brigade launches emulation movements which focus on successfully fulfiling the central political task; steps up the “Determined to Win” emulation movement in line with the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, moral example and lifestyle as well as the Campaign “promote tradition, devote talent, deserve to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers”. Moreover, the Brigade has promoted the role of mass organizations, strictly executed the Regulations on Grass-Roots Level Democracy, particularly in training and combat readiness missions, while building up the unity between cadres and soldiers within the unit, and between the military and the people.

Furthermore, the Brigade has renewed and improved the quality of training task, considering it a task of routine and importance and the key to enhancing the unit’s combat readiness capability. Due to the particularities of its organizational structure, the Brigade has various groups of objects of training; it has been assigned to perform the tasks of training and guard and other missions at the same time. Against that backdrop, the Brigade has attached great value to making training preparations, namely personnel, facilities, training ground, weapons and equipment, while taking cadre training as the key and technician training as the focus. Yearly, prior to the training season, the Brigade reviews and consolidates its organizational structure and equipment with a focus placed on the units tasked with training new recruits, carrying out combat readiness duty, and performing the A2 task. It has comprehensively renewed and provided training courses for cadres at each level and concentrated on overcoming weaknesses and performing new, difficult, complex tasks. As for commands and offices, the Brigade has demanded that training courses must focus on enhancing their capabilities in staff and operations, and training them methods to organize and direct map-based command-office exercises, field exercises, and tactical exercises. As for detachment-level cadres, due regard has been paid to training them to fight the enemy’s headquarters, fight the enemy on the battlefield and the model as well as to training them the methods to train troops, make lesson plans, and practise lectures. Up to now, all cadres of the Brigade have been capable of providing training courses for troops at their level. As for detachments, the Brigade has adhered to the motto of “basics, practicality, thorough grasp”, while attaching significance to comprehensive, specialized, focalized training in accordance with each force’s particularities and tasks, and taking the fight against the enemy in all situations in the air as the supreme target. To meet the task requirements, the Brigade has directed its units to closely follow the training content and program, make proper plans, and focus on training troops to master the existing materiel. At the same time, units have been required to increase night-time training; to train troops to quickly manoeuvre, detect and monitor the targets; to train troops to practise according to projects and situations as well as improve the combat coordination between components and forces in hi-tech airborne operations.

Besides, the Brigade has actively mobilized resources to invest hundreds of millions of VND and thousands of working days in repairing and upgrading the system of training grounds, held the training aid contest, and stepped up the movement to promote technical initiatives and innovations. During the process of training, the Brigade has required its offices and units to observe the approved training plans. Training cadres at all levels must submit their lesson plans for approval at least 3-5 days before delivering lecture; specialized lectures and tactical training lectures must be approved via rehearsals; units and offices must maintain the order for competitions at their levels. Since 2013, the Brigade has successfully held more than 10 competitions, taken part in many other competitions by higher echelons, and obtained good results. Thanks to proper measures, the Brigade’s training quality has been raised; its cadres and troops’ capabilities in command and operation as well as its units’ manoeuvrability and combat coordination have been considerably improved. In the exercises and inspections of combat readiness maintenance by the Corps and the Ministry of National Defence, the Brigade has met the requirements.

To ensure that the Brigade is always ready for combat and gives quick and accurate responses to all situations, it has stringently maintained the order for combat readiness and cooperated with other forces in the area in building a solid air defence posture. Adhering to the directives, commands and ratified plans for combat readiness, the Brigade has focused on making its organizational structure “compact, strong” and relevant to its tasks and providing the full strength and materiel for key offices and units, such as the headquarters, units on combat duty, and independent units. At the same time, it has strictly maintained 10 states of combat readiness and the order for inspection prior to, during and after each duty shift. Annually, the Brigade inspects, supplements, completes the system of combat documents at all levels in accord with the situation and the combat intent of the Corps, while consolidating the system of trenches and fortifications to ensure the flexible transformation of combat posture and thus opportunely drawing lessons, adjusting and supplementing its combat projects.

To raise the effectiveness of combat coordination, the Brigade has cooperated with the Air Defence Division 365, the Air Regiment 927 and the air defence forces in the area in studying and deploying the system of battlefields to ensure the elements of secrecy and surprise, the system of reconnaissance and inter-connected warning to collect the information, detect the enemy from afar, and grasp the enemy in the air and on land as the basis for commands at all levels to opportunely handle the situations. At the same time, it has cooperated with localities in the stationed area in grasping the situation and developing the coordination projects for on-the-spot combat and the plans to protect the battlefields, weapons and depots. The Brigade has studied and designed the model of “the Youth’s Determined to Win Battlefield” with adequate accommodation for troops, thereby shortening the duration for shifting towards the level-1 state of combat readiness (10 seconds in daytime and 30 seconds in nighttime), opportunely dealing with the situations in operations.

As a combat and technical unit, the Brigade’s combat readiness capability depends on the work of technical support. Due to the large amount of vehicles, artillery, weapons and equipment which have been in use for ages, the Brigade has attached great importance to directing the work of repair and maintenance at each level. At the same time, it has actively invested in enhancing the repair quality of its Workshop and stepped up the training courses to improve all-level technicians’ skills in exploiting, using, repairing and maintaining equipment as well as their skills at dealing with technical situations in operational manoeuvre.

A part from the above-mentioned measures, the Brigade has paid due attention to the mass mobilization work, regularity building and discipline management, actively made its barracks “bright, green, clean, scenic”, well carried out the logistics support work to improve its troops’ material and spiritual life, thereby contributing to raising the training quality and combat readiness capability, maintaining readiness for undertaking and fulfilling all assigned tasks, deserving the tradition of “lightning speed - daring - determined to fight - victorious”.

Col. Nguyen Huy Cuong, Commander of the Brigade