To meet the increasing demands of protecting the Fatherland, particularly in defending the airspace of the Capital City of Ha Noi in any situation, on May 22^nd, 2013, the 64^th Missile Regiment (hereinafter referred to as Regiment) was established. As a unit designated for modernisation, the Regiment has consistently received attention and investment in terms of human resources, weapons, technical equipment, and infrastructure, providing favourable conditions for accomplishing assigned tasks. During the process of task deployment, the Regiment has faced numerous difficulties and challenges related to the management, operation, and utilisation of various types of advanced weapons and complex air defence systems. Additionally, the varying levels of competence among the staff, with some not fully meeting the requirements and tasks, as well as limited availability of supplies and components, have posed challenges. In light of these realities, the Regiment Party Committee and Command have focused on leading and directing breakthroughs in enhancing the quality of training and combat readiness through synchronised, creative, and appropriate solutions.

First and foremost, the Regiment has strengthened the leadership and guidance from Party committees and commanders at all levels, while emphasising the exemplary role of the cadres in this crucial task. Observing the superiors’ resolutions, directives, and guidelines on training work and based on the actual situation of the unit, the Regiment Party Committee has annually formulated specialised resolutions titled “Renewal and improvement of the quality of training and combat readiness,” including specific principles, solutions, objectives, targets, and implementation plans clearly defined. Simultaneously, specific agencies and units have been assigned to translate these resolutions and plans into action at their respective levels, ensuring unified and coordinated implementation. Throughout the implementation process, the Regiment has required each agency and unit to assign Party commissioners to closely monitor every aspect of the work. It has also valued the modeling role of its cadres and Party members in training and exercises, making training outcomes an important criterion for evaluating task completion and recognising collective and individual achievements. Especially, regarding competitions, contests, and exercises, the Regiment has established a Steering Committee led directly by the Regiment Commander, with the participation of commanding officers from relevant agencies and units, to enhance guidance, management, and inspection of training work. Regular reviews and adjustments have made to coordination regulations between agencies and units, highlighting the central coordinating role of the Advisory Board in guiding and managing to ensure “concentration, unity, effectiveness, coherence, and non-overlapping.” The Regiment has intensified Party and political work within training, emphasising the education and thorough understanding of cadres and soldiers regarding their aspirations, difficulties, and emerging challenges to promptly find solutions and provide timely encouragement and motivation. Additionally, it has attached great importance to maintaining the strict discipline and culture of the Political and Cultural Days at the grassroots level, promoting democracy and harnessing the intelligence of the soldiers to improve the quality of training, and resolutely overcoming subjective thinking, complacency, and satisfaction with past achievements. Through these efforts, the Regiment has fostered a high level of determination among its troops to overcome hardships and challenges and willingly strive towards firmly accomplishing training objectives and targets.

The ZSU-23 crew in combat preparation

As a combined air defence unit with various types of weapons and equipment, the Regiment’s training target and content are diverse and complex. Therefore, to improve the training quality, it has proactively ensured comprehensive and meticulous preparations in all aspects, of which training and fostering of cadres has been identified as a crucial step. Every year, before commencing training, the Regiment has conducted assessments and evaluations of the quality and proficiency levels of cadres at all levels to establish plans and determine the training and fostering content. During the implementation process, it has selected cadres to participate in training courses organised by the Service and Division, and established instructor teams to continue training and fostering the staff throughout the unit. Alongside personnel preparations, the Regiment has actively ensured complete training support in terms of textbooks, materials, models, teaching aids, diagrams, illustrations, etc. In recent years, the Regiment has collaborated with superior agencies and experts in translating and compiling thousands of pages of materials on new weapons and equipment, as well as nearly 100 diagrams and illustrations. Moreover, the Regiment’s staff have conducted research and generated many initiatives, improvements, and designs and successfully built training and exercise models that have yielded practical results, saving fuel and machine startup time, extending the service life of equipment, and enhancing the effectiveness of training and practical exercises. These achievements serve as an important foundation and prerequisite for the Regiment to improve the quality of training and mastering of the weapons and technical equipment in its establishment.

Furthermore, the Regiment has actively innovated the content and methods of training towards a comprehensive approach with a focus on key areas and emphasising practical application. It has also focused on breakthroughs in new, difficult, and essential content that align with task requirements as well as the characteristics and situation of the unit. Due to the limited experience of the technicians in operating and controlling new weapons and equipment and the lack of specialised training programs in military academies and institutions, the Regiment has placed emphasis on both selecting technicians for overseas training programs provided by superior authorities and conducting on-site training. It has also combined theoretical training with practical exercises on the weapons and equipment as well as exchanging experience gained from real training activities during the training abroad. Additionally, in conjunction with specialised group training, the Regiment has closely combined training on stations, posts, and actual equipment with performance of guard and combat readiness duties.

To handle air defence combat situations promptly and meet the requirements of combat readiness and combat in complex operational conditions, the Regiment has always focused on maintaining and improving the proficiency and combat readiness of the troops. Accordingly, the Regiment has regularly improved its organisational structure in accordance with regulations, prioritising troop numbers and ensuring the synchronisation of weapons, equipment, and means for units in a state of combat readiness. It has strictly maintained command duty, staff duty, communication duty, combat duty teams, and guard patrols, especially during holidays, Tet, and significant political events of the country, in accordance with the 10 combat readiness regimes and “4-knows” in airspace management. Concurrently, it has closely coordinated with the local party committees and authorities in firmly grasping the local situation, especially the mobile routes and selected defensive positions. The Regiment has actively studied the enemy situation, the characteristics of certain weapons and equipment, and new air combat methods to timely supplement and adjust combat plans and documents and combat-readiness training exercises to suit the actual situation. Based on that, it has enhanced training in command level coordination and combat plan exercises and improved the ability to handle situations, especially air defence combat situations under Directive No.750/CL-TM, dated September 11^th, 2021, of the Chief of the General Staff and Plan A2.

In addition to strictly maintaining discipline and combat readiness regimes, the Regiment has particularly emphasised the training of combat team coordination at all levels. Regarding the Headquarter combat team, it has focused on training cadres to firmly grasp the managed airspace and the firepower zones of each detachment and the entire Regiment; the methods of receiving and transmitting orders from the Regiment Headquarter to the units and coordination detachments, and vice versa. Regarding the detachment combat teams, it has concentrated on training of capturing and tracking low and ultra-low flying targets; commands and actions in joint combat; attacking flying targets in complex situations, and so on. To improve effectiveness, the Regiment has required agencies and units to focus on training the troops in combat preparation, especially in mobile occupation of defensive positions, quick retrieval, and deployment of weapons, ensuring safety and secrecy in daytime, nighttime, and complex weather and atmospheric conditions. It has also closely coordinated with the air force and related units in training and exercising target detection, capture, and tracking and electronic missile strikes and actively participated in joint exercises to put the troops in real situations and be ready to handle situations timely and effectively.

With resolute and synchronised measures, the Regiment’s training and combat readiness have significantly improved in quality. Over the past 10 years, the Regiment consistently fulfiled its regular combat readiness duty tasks and reinforced duty operations during holidays, Tet, and significant national events to promptly detect, manage, and report target groups in accordance with regulations. For many consecutive years, the Regiment has been recognised as an “Excellent Training Unit” and achieved high results in various competitions, contests, and exercises at all levels. In particular, in 2017, it successfully completed a joint military exercise (DT-17) with live ammunition held by the Ministry of National Defence, receiving commendations. In 2018 and 2022, it participated in live-fire exercises ZSU-23, held by the Service and achieved the Excellent Award by successfully destroying targets. In 2023, it excellently completed the mobile mission and live-fire acceptance test of the S-300PMU1 missile system at the TB-5 firing range.

Building upon the achieved results and experiences, cadres and soldiers of the 64^th Regiment continue to strive, unite, overcome difficulties, and remain determined to fulfil their training and combat readiness tasks excellently to contribute to enhancing the overall quality and combat strength, together with other units in the military branch, to firmly protect the sacred airspace of the Fatherland.

Lieutenant Colonel TRAN NGOC CHINH, Regiment Commander