The Chemical Brigade 86 under the Chemical Corps is tasked with organising training, maintaining combat readiness, ensuring chemical support for operational and strategic combat, performing the A2 task, fighting terrorism, and settling chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear, and environmental incidents and post-war toxic chemicals. Therefore, in spite of peacetime, the Brigade’s task always necessitates its cadres and soldiers heightening their responsibility and maintaining readiness for undertaking and fulfilling all assigned missions. Being aware of the task and its particularities, over the years, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have drastically adopted synchronous measures for raising the synergy and combat readiness capacity.

First of all, the Brigade has stepped up the work of propagation and education to build its cadres and soldiers’ political stuff and determination to undertake and fulfil all missions. To that end, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have frequently grasped and introduced the Party’s military-defence guidelines and the Chemical Corps’ regulations on combat readiness to troops. At the same time, they have directed offices and units to better political and ideological education and the work of information and propagation in order to render troops fully aware of the current task requirements for the chemical troops, the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage, and objects of combat. Moreover, the Brigade has required offices and units to further renew and make the content of political education brief and easy to remember and understand. Cadres’ role model-setting responsibility has been heightened. To implement the Project on “renewing political education at military units in the new period,” the Brigade has actively studied and included specialised topics relevant to its practical conditions in political education, applied information technology to teaching, and combined basic political education with law education and other types of education, such as activities in Ho Chi Minh’s hall and law bookcase. Due attention has been paid to grasping, managing, and settling ideological issues of troops, particularly of new recruits, soldiers in difficult circumstance, and the force in charge of dangerous task, strictly executing the Regulations on Grass-Roots Level Democracy, and opportunely identifying and dealing with the arising issues to avoid passivity. Doing so has helped build up cadres and soldiers’ political zeal, revolutionary vigilance, combat morale, and faith in the existing weapons and technical equipment as well as bring into play chemical troops’ tradition of “effective prevention and good combat” and make troops ready to undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned missions.

In addition to the work of political and ideological education, the Brigade has stringently maintained the order and regulations for combat readiness. Significance has been attached to consolidating the organisational structure under the National Defence Ministry’s regulations and strictly maintaining the order for command duty, office and unit duty, combat readiness duty, patrol and guard. Based on its function and task, the Brigade has frequently grasped the situation, adjusted, completed and practised combat determination and plans in accordance with the area. At the same time, it has cooperated with local party committees and authorities, military and public security units in the area in organising joint exercises, thereby contributing to ensuring political security and social order and safety.

Due to the Brigade’s task particularities, its cadres and soldiers must be trained sufficiently, carefully and made capable of mastering weapons and technical equipment and dealing with situations quickly, accurately, and absolutely safely. Thus, the Brigade has always placed emphasis on raising the quality of training and exercises and combining training and exercises with its tasks of fighting terrorism and handling chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear and environmental incidents. Grasping and implementing the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW and the Chemical Corps Party Committee’s Resolution 174-NQ/ĐU on “raising the quality of training in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond,” on a yearly basis, the Brigade Party Committee and Command focus leadership and direction on improving the work of training management and operation and renewing the form and method of training and exercises relevant to practical developments. Consideration has been given to enhancing cadres’ capability in command and operation and their skills in dealing with chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear and environmental incidents. Due regard has been paid to providing intensive training for the force in charge of combating terrorism and handling chemical, radioactive, nuclear and environmental incidents. The Brigade has concentrated on improving all-level commanders’ knowledge of military technology so that they could be capable of counselling, managing, and operating the training work. Significance has been attached to renewing exercises, particularly the command and office ones on the maps and fields. Furthermore, the Brigade has trained its troops to collect information, assess the situation, correctly predict the risks of radioactive, nuclear and environmental incidents, while improving their capacity to effectively deal with those incidents.

Chemical troops in the fight against COVID-19

The Brigade has organised comprehensive but focalised training for detachment-level units in accordance with each force’s task. In this regard, tactical training has been seen as the centre, specialised training has been regarded as the basis, and the training of cadres has served as the key. The Brigade has increased night-time, practical, situations-based, field training for its troops and trained them to prevent and fight against weapons of mass destruction in a hi-tech war, on various types of terrains and in the harsh weather conditions. It has combined tactical training with specialised training related to the settlement of post-war toxic chemicals and environmental incidents. Concerning the Centre for response to toxic chemical, radioactive, and nuclear incidents, focus has been placed on developing and well practising scenarios for response to toxic chemical, radioactive, and nuclear incidents, natural disasters, and search and rescue on all types of terrains and in all weather conditions. The Brigade has increased physical training for the Team for settlement of environmental consequences, while improving this Team’s English knowledge and capacity to deal with environmental incidents and conduct search and rescue operations. With reference to the Anti-Terrorism Unit, emphasis has been placed on developing simulation situations, training the methods of identifying and handling chemical and radioactive situations, and training the Unit to cooperate with other forces in isolating terrorist groups and releasing hostages. Moreover, the Brigade has focused on training its reconnaissance units to quickly, accurately identify types and concentration of radioactive and biological substances and environmental incidents as well as to clean up the environment.

Furthermore, the Brigade has directed offices and units to strictly follow the training plan and maintain the regulations on military competitions at all levels, particularly for cadres who are in charge of the training work. In the training process, there have been a large number of creative, effective models and approaches, such as the emulation movements entitled “good training, strict discipline, high-level combat readiness” and “striving for merit and distinction,” which have been brought about good results within the Brigade’s offices and units. In addition, the Brigade has stepped up a reform in the content, organisation, and method of exercises according to the new combat style in accordance with the existing weapons and technical equipment. Due attention has been paid to increasing the quality of general exercises for chemical companies and battalions, taking part in joint exercises, and cooperating with other forces in holding exercises on fighting terrorism and riots and dealing with toxic chemical incidents under the directives by the Ministry of National Defence and the Chemical Corps. As a result, the Brigade’s training and combat readiness work has witnessed a considerable positive change, being highly appreciated by the General Staff and the Chemical Corps. In 2019, all affiliates of the Brigade satisfied the criteria for good training units while the Brigade was given the Flag of Good Training Unit in the period of 2014-2019 by the Ministry of National Defence.

It should be noted that the Brigade successfully fulfilled its mission in the Joint Exercise (DT-17), the Anti-Terrorism Exercise (CKB-17), and the Exercise in response to toxic chemical, radioactive, and nuclear incidents (TN-19). It also took part in combat readiness duty for protecting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and activities of the Vietnam APEC Year 2017, the World Economic Forum on ASEAN in 2018, and the second Summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Hanoi (2019). Recently, the Brigade has successfully organised the Exercise in response to COVID-19, dealt with the toxic chemical incident in the Rang Dong Light Source and Vacuum Flask Company, and stamped out the epidemic in Truc Bach street and the hospital of Bach Mai. Via exercises and task performance, all-level cadres’ capability in organising, commanding, managing, and operating exercises and the Brigade’s combat readiness capacity and task performance have been improved and highly appreciated by leaders of the Ministry of National Defence, local party committees and authorities and the people.

A part from the above-mentioned measures, the Brigade has effectively carried out the logistics work, prepared training grounds, ensured sufficient weapons and technical equipment, and stringently maintained the Military’s discipline, thereby making contributions to raising its synergy and combat readiness capacity, making itself capable of playing the core role in dealing with complex chemical situations in the North and performing international missions.

Sr. Col. Le Xuan Dung, Commander of the Brigade