Army Corps No.4 (hereafter the Corps) is a key and strategic mobile unit with numerous achievements in terms of training and combat missions. In order to meet requirements set by missions of Homeland protection in the new situation, the Corps’s Party Executive Committee and High Command have thoroughly grasped and synchronously taken various measures to enhance its overall quality and combat strength with a focus on training mission.

First, the Corps has fostered the leadership and direction of party executive committees and commandants at diverse levels to execute training task. Grounded in the comprehension of higher echelons’ resolutions and instructions on the work of training, especially Resolution No. 765-NQ/QUTW by the Central Military Commission, the Corps’s Party Committee promulgated Resolution No. 278-NQ/ĐU on “Strengthening the quality of training in the 2013-2020 period and beyond”, the High Command formulated a plan with specific objectives and implementation measures whereby the Corps’s affiliates worked out their resolutions, programs and plans in line with their particularities whilst instructing all-level party committees to assign their members in charge of the work of training and drilling, and to promote the model role setting responsibility amongst cadres and party members, taking training outcome as a criterion for the emulation and commendation work and the task performance of every office, unit and individual’s duties on a yearly basis. Besides, for the sake of effective training mission, the Corps has strengthened the work of briefing and education whose content involves significance of the work of training; the Corps’s tradition of training and fighting as well as its objectives and requirements for training in a bid to enhance greater awareness and sense of responsibility amongst cadres and soldiers. The Corps also has directed its affiliates to actively renew the form and solution of the work of briefing and education in line with every subject, especially the new recruits and cadres whilst improving the quality of party and political work, particularly launching emulation movements in alignment with the Campaign “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” with a focus on boosting the efficiency of training work and resolutely avoiding implementing training work in a formalistic fashion. Given appropriate solutions, cadres and soldiers within the entire Corps are fully aware of objectives, requirements and missions of training, and determined to obtain the best possible training results.

For the sake of total transformation in training work, the Corps has fostered the renovation in training-related organization and management with emphasis placed on heightening the quality of training plans and clearly delegating responsibilities to all-level offices and commandants towards training instructions and organization. Over the past time, the Corps has strictly adopted the procedure for formulating, passing and executing training plans, and held training courses for cadres in direct charge of this work. In particular, the Corps has regularly facilitated a close coordination in devising and carrying out training plans among advisory, political, logistical and technical offices in a synchronous and unified fashion whilst instructing its affiliates to fully formulate training rosters as well as teaching plans for approval. In addition, special attention is paid to regularly and strictly holding all-level introductory training courses with a focus on introducing new training contents and methods and offering training experiences for company-and-platoon-level cadres. During training process, in addition to the role of a pool of cadres at all levels, the Corps also promotes the work of inspection and reassessment concerning training work. For the sake of high effectiveness, the Corps has asked its affiliates to innovate the form and method of inspection via enhanced unscheduled inspection in an effort to accurately evaluate training results. In response to higher requirements for training, prior to every training phase, the Corps directs its affiliates to streamline their organization with priorities given to campaign-level advisory offices, combat readiness units, and units in charge of training the new recruits in which the Corps singles out competent and experienced cadres who are sent to all-level offices, particularly politico-military training office in direct charge of advisory and directive work of training. Simultaneously, the Corps requires its affiliates to selectively organize the recruits of separate enlistment time into infantry battalions and other relevant units for the sake of maximum efficiency in training work.

The Corps concentrates on heightening the quality of practical training and combat drills as a determinant to training outcome. Accordingly, the Corps has drastically directed its affiliates to renew the forms, content and methods of training whilst requiring them to stringently maintain training regimes. The Corps has intensified practical training for operation-level commandants and offices under the motto “practical, effective, realistic”, and strengthened “fundamental, practical, steady” training in Corps-wide units with prominence given to synchronous and in-depth training in line with combat objects and the reality of stationed areas as well as operational requirements with the foe’s use of hi-tech weapons in war condition.

Grounded in operational requirements of a key mobile unit and practical experience drawn from the review of training work in the 2011-2015 period, the Corps has devoted due attention to raising soldiers’ mobile ability in areas of river plain; conducting operational training in cities, townships; and combining military training and political education with discipline maintenance, etc. Pursuant to training plans, units have paid due regard to training swimming technique for soldiers, ensuring that all the second-year ranks know how to do butterfly swimming and other swimming techniques as a basis for river-crossing training. Over the past years, the Corps’s soldiers with full gear have been trained to make numerous smooth crossing in rivers of Sai Gon, Dong Nai, etc. In addition, the Corps has promoted physical training, intensive long-range loaded march training and night training across assorted terrains in a bid to enhance soldiers’ stamina. For the sake of higher commanding and combat coordination capabilities, the Corps has instructed its affiliates to take the proper execution of exercises seriously, particularly general tactical ones for platoon-company-battalion levels; live-fire field-training exercises, and combined arms combat ones, thereby visibly improving the Corps’s quality of training work. In 2017, 100 percent of soldiers were qualified for tests of general military subjects of which over 80 percent rated as excellent; 100% of soldiers passed shooting tests and tactical training tests in which 82,6% and 83,8% rated as excellent respectively. On-map combat and live-fire exercises for relevant Corps-wide units have been adequately conducted with absolutely guaranteed safety rules concerning troops and materiel.

In parallel with aforementioned solutions, due attention is paid to guaranteeing training aids and facilities. In order to deal with inadequate training ground, especially shooting and artillery range, in addition to effectively using higher echelons-funded budget, the Corps has mobilized thousands of working days of soldiers to consolidate training grounds, and stepped up the movement of innovating training aids via the application of electronic teaching plans to training work whilst closely cooperating with 7^th Military Region and its 3^rd Region National Shooting Range in holding live-fire drills. Annually, the Corps has always given training safety as a top priority due to a great number of troops, materiel and transport vehicles involved in drills and training. Subsequently, while properly briefing and educating soldiers about safety rules, the Corps has directed its affiliates to conduct fundamental training pertaining to explosive materials, and strictly follow safety protocols before, during and after training phase. As a result, safety rules have been always guaranteed absolutely concerning training work and drills.

Above-mentioned outcome and experiences act as a prerequisite for the Corps to continuously strengthen its quality of training and combat readiness capability, contributing greatly to Homeland protection in the new situation.

Maj. Gen. Pham Xuan Thuyet, Commander of Army Corps No.4