Maintaining the “blood vessel” of communication during operations in general, strategic defence in each direction and on each battlefield in particular is one of the vital factors for the success of leadership and command of operations. In this regard, communication engineering support plays a crucial role and should be thoroughly studied both theoretically and practically.

It is evident that strategic operations in general, strategic defence in each direction and on each battlefield in particular, play a very important role in a Fatherland protection war (if it occurred), especially amid the robust development of the 4^th industrial revolution; nowadays, our objects of combat have achieved rapid developments in their organisational structure, weaponry, equipment, and combat methods and artifices, alongside their superiority in hi-tech weapons, electronic warfare, and cyber warfare, which will greatly impact on communication engineering support in particular, the communication system in general. Meanwhile, our strategic defence regularly takes place right at the onset of a war and during that war, in various directions and regions, with rapid, highly complex situations and urgent, considerable demands to provide communication for command and coordination.

Troops of Brigade 205, Signal Corps master portable VSAT equipment (photo: qdnd.vn)

In order to maintain “timely, accurate, secret, safe, and smooth” communication in any circumstances, it is crucial for different measures to be synchronously implemented; in this regard, raising the effectiveness of communication engineering support will directly impact on the technical condition and operating capacity of the communication system. Hence, signal forces during strategic defence should well implement several basic measures as follows.

First, building potentialities and elaborately, comprehensively preparing projects on communication engineering support right in peacetime. Communication engineering support during strategic defence requires a large quantity of communication engineering equipment, materials, and human resources; therefore, it is necessary to make elaborate, all-round preparations in terms of potentiality, manpower, and posture right in peacetime and in the early period prior to a war. Emphasis should be placed on building organisations in charge of leadership, command, and management of communication engineering support with their structure, functions, tasks, operating mechanisms, and methods of communication engineering support appropriate to war-time activities and strategic defence-related situations. At the same time, it is important to build communication engineering forces with a proper structure, political steadfastness, expertise in modern telecoms technologies, great professional competence, and  a good command of foreign languages, develop reserve forces and resources in terms of telecoms means and infrastructure, construct modern communication engineering facilities, improve technical support capacity, and gradually achieve autonomy in manufacturing communication engineering equipment and materials to meet the requirements of a potential war. In addition to technical support for equipment, it is essential to provide technical support for the communication system and identify demands for producing, storing, and supplying communication equipment and materials for the communication system and during combat.

Like other types of strategic combat, strategic defence is always conducted in different forms and scales with various projects for communication support; therefore, a combat plan must include different technical support projects for each communication support project. To remain proactive and raise the quality of communication engineering support, the Field Command should prepare projects for communication engineering support right in peacetime, with emphasis placed on designing plans for communication engineering support, identifying demands for communication engineering equipment and materials, and storing communication engineering equipment and materials. Each project must include plans to provide and supplement communication engineering means and forces during the combat process, while an independent project for long-term communication engineering support against enemy partitioning and isolation must be developed. It is vital to forecast possible technical situations and remedial measures, particularly against wholesale breakdowns and heavy losses of communication forces and means during combat.

Second, improving the quality of communication engineering cadres, employees, and facilities, organising and deploying communication engineering forces flexibly in accord with combat situations. Under plans for communication support and the characteristics of communication engineering equipment, signal staff offices should determine the number of communication engineering cadres and employees in each speciality, in each region, and at each level relevant to the requirements of communication engineering support to develop training plans. It is necessary to proactively conduct long-term and short-term planning for communication engineering staff at each level in accord with plans for communication development in preparation for combat. Due attention should be paid to well carrying out communication engineering-related training work, organising retraining and training courses for communication engineering staff at all levels, and popularising new technologies for communication engineering support among communication engineering contingent. Simultaneously, importance should be attached to providing technical support for new-generation communication equipment, repair stations at corps and military region levels, signal brigades’ technical centres, and provincial-level repair facilities. Due to a large number of forces taking part in communication engineering support for strategic defence, there should be various projects to organise and use technical forces properly, dispose all-level communication engineering facilities flexibly, combine on-the-spot technical support with mobile and distant technical support, and integrate small-scale technical support into large-scale technical support to form an inter-connected, uniform communication engineering support system across the battlefield. In the process, communication engineering support must be extensive but focalised on main directions and regions to form a solid communication engineering support posture across the entire battlefield and in each main theatre of operations; such a posture must be flexibly transformed from strategic defence into strategic counter-offensive and offensive. Besides, it is important to conduct surveys, identify positions, and gradually construct technical bases of the Signal Corps and technical support centres in each direction, on each battlefield, and within each provincial-level defensive zone right in peacetime as a strong fulcrum for signal forces of military regions, main army corps, and the Signal Corps to provide communication support during strategic defence.

Third, closely combining forces during communication engineering support. Across the whole battlefield and within each theatre of operations, there should be a close combination of communication engineering forces from the Signal Corps, military regions, services, army corps, specialised corps, and provincial-level defensive zones; there should be also coordination between military and civilian communication engineering forces, with a focus on forces from Vietnam Posts and Telecoms Group (VNPT). Coordination work must be comprehensive, particularly in providing communication engineering support, deploying technical forces and commands, decentralising communication engineering support, and handling communication engineering support situations during operations.

In the process of communication engineering support, it is necessary to closely combine technical support for communication equipment during operations with the development and management of communication engineering resources, with a view to mobilising communication engineering equipment, materials, forces, and facilities, encouraging capabilities in manufacture and repair of communication engineering equipment and materials from offices, units, and businesses within defensive zones for communication engineering support during strategic defence, communication system protection, and response to enemy firepower, electronic warfare, and cyber warfare.

To ensure close, effective coordination in communication engineering support, heads of signal offices, field signal units, and other relevant units should have a firm grasp of communication engineering equipment, facilities, and staff of their own and within defensive zones as the basis for formulating measures to employ communication engineering equipment and staff and construct communication engineering facilities in theatres of operations. Great value should be attached to aligning communication engineering support with communication support in combat periods and situations, using forces properly, and bringing into play each force’s capabilities and forte in the process. Moreover, sound advice should be given to the Signal Corps on maintaining close coordination between the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Information and Communications in state management of communication and telecoms in theatres of operations as the basis for mobilising on-the-spot potentialities during communication support in general, communication engineering support in particular.

Fourth, further applying achievements in the 4^th industrial revolution to command and direction of communication engineering support. With the robust development of science and technology, new advances, such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and blockchain are becoming core technologies of the 4^th industrial revolution to foster our country’s rapid, sustainable development in economic, cultural, social, defence, and security terms. Therefore, during our strategic defence, the enemy will use hi-tech weapons and technical equipment with strong firepower and superiority in electronic warfare and cyber warfare. There will be changes in warfare from both our side and enemy side, thus leading to transformations in methods of technical support in general, communication engineering support in particular for combat. For that reason, it is necessary to take advantage of the 4^th industrial revolution’s achievements to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of commanding and directing communication engineering support in accordance with the requirements of strategic defence during a Fatherland protection war in the new conditions.

To that end, there should be reforms in commanding and directing communication engineering support in an automated, modernised way. Right in peacetime, military regions, army corps, services, and specialised corps should access and put electronic, optical, photoconductive, and laser equipment as well as new-generation computers into use, while information and data should be digitalised to command and direct communication engineering support in a rapid, highly reliable, stable manner and opportunely settle situations during combat. It is essential to quickly acquire new knowledge about command and management automation and modernisation. Communication engineering leaders, commanders, and managers should quickly have a good command of information technology under regulations. Consideration should be given to consolidating all-level communication engineering staff offices with mechanisms relevant to communication engineering management and command work in the new conditions. Digital transformation should be carried out to facilitate communication engineering support command and direction in peacetime and wartime, establish communication engineering norms, develop models for calculation and document design, assist communication engineering commanders and managers in decision-making, and ensure a smooth, secret, safe communication system.

Sr. Col., Associate Prof., Dr LE XUAN HUNG

Col. HOANG VAN DUC, MSc

Signal Officer College