Missile Brigade 490 under the Artillery Corps is a surface-to-surface strategic missile unit, founded on May 24^th, 1982, tasked with organising training courses, maintaining combat readiness and manoeuvre, taking part in preventing and controlling natural disasters and epidemics, and performing other contingency missions. Over the past 40 years of construction and development, under leadership and direction from the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence, and especially the Artillery Corps’ Party Committee and Command, generations of the Brigade’s cadres and soldiers have surmounted all difficulties and challenges and remained unity to build an increasingly strong Brigade capable of successfully fulfilling all missions, build up the tradition of “activeness, proactiveness, and comprehensive progress,” and make contributions to bolstering the Heroic Artillery Corps’ tradition of “bronze feet, iron shoulders, good combat, accurate fire.” With those achievements, the Brigade has been given 6 Feat of Arms Orders, 1 First-Class Fatherland Protection Order (2007), and many other noble rewards by the State and the Ministry of National Defence.

To obtain those good results, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have synchronously, drastically adopted measures, with a focus on building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade as the basis for fulfilling all assigned missions. First of all, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have concentrated on building a politically strong Brigade as a solid foundation for raising its synergy and combat strength. In addition to Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, the Brigade has educated its cadres and soldiers on the Party’s military-defence guidelines mentioned in the Resolution of the 13^th National Party Congress, the Resolution of the 11^th Military Party Congress, and the Strategy for the Fatherland Protection in the New Situation. Great value has been attached to raising cadres and soldiers’ political awareness and faith in the Party’s national renewal policy. Emphasis has been placed on clarifying the requirements set by the Fatherland protection associated with tasks of the Brigade, the Corps, and each individual and unit, identifying non-traditional security challenges, unmasking hostile forces’ plots and artifices, particularly in cyberspace, and proposing measures to prevent and combat hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy. In the process, the Brigade has closely combined political education with the management and orientation of troops’ ideology and flexibly employed forms and methods of education in accordance with each group of troops. At the same time, due attention has been paid to enhancing the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and lifestyle in tandem with the Campaign titled “promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s soldiers” in the new period. Besides, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have frequently focused their leadership and direction on making all-level party organisations and mass organisations strong. As a result, the Brigade has always been politically strong; the majority of its cadres and soldiers have expressed their political zeal and great determination to successfully fulfil all assigned missions.

Raising combat readiness capacity and especially manoeuvrability to meet task requirements is an important measure designed by the Brigade. Grounded on the pre-set combat readiness projects, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have strengthened their leadership and direction over the strict execution of Directives by Minister of National Defence and Commander of the Corps on combat readiness for the reserve missile artillery force. The Brigade has frequently reviewed and sufficiently supplemented documents and plans on combat readiness, while selecting good cadres and soldiers to staff units tasked with combat readiness. Besides, it has proactively developed and practised projects on combat readiness, fire, explosion and natural disaster prevention and control, and search and rescue in a close, scientific manner. At the same time, it has set high requirements for combat readiness training and combat readiness posture shifting and improved troops’ combat manoeuvrability by motor vehicles in complex terrain and weather conditions as well as in both daylight and night-time. Consideration has been given to stringently maintaining regulations on command, headquarters, combat, and speciality duty at all levels in order to opportunely mobilise personnel and means for effectively dealing with situations and avoid falling into passivity.

A training course by the Brigade

The Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have concentrated their leadership and direction on making a breakthrough in the quality of training within each office and unit. The Brigade has directed all-level party committees and commands to grasp higher echelons’ resolutions and directives on training work, particularly Conclusion 60-KL/QUTW, dated January 18^th, 2019 on continuing executing the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW and the Corps Party Committee’s Resolution on raising the quality of training in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond. Based on those documents, affiliates of the Brigade have developed their own resolutions and plans on training work with specific targets and requirements. Moreover, the Brigade has focused on formulating training plans, consolidating training grounds, and sufficiently ensuring materials for training work. The system of lesson plans and lectures have been designed and approved at each level. Refresher courses for cadres in charge of training work have been closely organised, with priority given to new, important contents.

In the training process, the Brigade has required all-level commands to directly train their units and adhere to the motto of “basics, practicality, solidity.” Significance has been attached to providing “synchronous, intensive” training courses, taking practice as the main, improving the quality of night-time and intense training, and effectively exploiting weapons and technical equipment, particularly modern ones. Great weight has been added to improving troops’ technical and tactical capacity and combining combat training with physical training to increase troops’ resilience and manoeuvrability in all terrain and weather conditions. The Brigade has also concentrated on inspecting the outcome of training in order to objectively evaluate the quality of training and fight against merit-driven practices, while aligning the outcome of training with the task performance of individuals and collectives as the basis for commendation. As a result, the quality of training within the Brigade has been unceasingly improved. The Brigade has been given the Certificate of Merit for its training work by the Corps Command for many consecutive years; it was presented with the Good Physical Training Unit Flag by the Ministry of National Defence in 2020 and 2021.

Being fully aware that discipline is the Military’s strength, the Brigade has concentrated on making a breakthrough in military standard order building and discipline management. The Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have regularly directed offices and units to grasp and observe the State’s laws, the Troop Management Regulations, and other regulations on study and work. The Brigade has required its offices and units to grasp their troops’ compliance with the State’s laws and the Military’s discipline, resolutely, opportunely handle offences, and consider discipline management as an important criterion for evaluating their task performance. Thanks to those synchronous, drastic measures, over the years, there has been a positive change in the Brigade’s discipline management and military standard order building. This is also a highlight of the building of an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade with the increased synergy and combat power to meet its task requirements.

Furthermore, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have always attached importance to ensuring logistics support and implementing emulation movements, such as “the Military Logistics Branch follows Uncle Ho’s teachings,” “units good at catering and ordnance management,” and “five-good military medical units.” Due attention has been paid to promoting and applying technical initiatives and innovations and bringing into play cadres and technical employees’ role in managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment. At the same time, the Brigade has strictly maintained the “Technical Day” at all levels in line with the Campaign entitled “managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically, and ensuring traffic safety,” thereby providing sufficient weapons and technical equipment for training and combat readiness.

Several lessons on building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong unit have been drawn by Missile Brigade 490. Those lessons will continue to be applied to successfully fulfil all assigned missions of the Brigade as follows.

First, frequently improve the quality and effectiveness of political education and ideological management, build cadres, party members, employees, and soldiers’ pure morality and absolute loyalty to the Party’s leadership, encourage all staff members to readily undertake and successfully fulfil all assigned tasks, and actively, proactively detect and push back the degradation in political ideology, morality, and lifestyle as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within.

Second, attach significance to building typically pure, strong party organisations and “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong units, promoting the vanguard, exemplary role of cadres and party members, particularly key ones, and enhance all-level party committees and inspection commissions’ inspection and supervision work  towards party organisations, cadres, and party members.

Third, focus all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction and all resources on realising breakthroughs in training, combat readiness, discipline management, and military administrative reform in each office and unit as an incentive for building an “exemplarily, typically” comprehensively strong Brigade capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned missions.

Fourth, bring into play the whole Brigade’s synergy, proactiveness, creativity, and self-reliance, well implement Regulations on Democracy at Grass-Roots Level, build strong mass organisations and soldiers’ councils, and improve troops’ material and mental life.

Sr. Col. LE XUAN TUYNH, Commander of the Brigade