Being a component of the Air Defence-Air Force Service, Air Defence Division 365 is tasked with managing and protecting Hanoi in the North and Northeast directions, and some other main targets in the provinces of Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen, Lang Son, and being ready for combat under the orders of the Ministry of National Defence and the Service. Following the policy of building the Service advancing straight to modernity, in recent years, the Division has basically adjusted and strengthened its organisation in the “elite, compact, strong” direction, and been equipped with new, advanced and modern equipment. This has, on the one hand, helped improve the combat readiness capability of all units, on the other hand, caused many difficulties and challenges for the Division in both managing and using many types of old and new technical equipment, meanwhile there have been certain limitations in cadres’ competence and capability, and the combat objects, methods and tricks have not made great strides, etc. In that reality, the Division’s Party Committee and Command have paid attention to leading, directing and comprehensively conducting all working aspects with many synchronous solutions, focusing on enhancing the capacity of managing and protecting the airspace, firmly protecting the assigned targets, lest the Fatherland be passive and sudden in all situations.

At first, the Division has intensely educated, grasped the tasks, improved the spirit, and built the morale, determination and high vigilance for cadres and soldiers. Based on the features and high requirements of air combats, especially the opportunities, ability of support and coordination among forces, etc., the duty of combat readiness must be serious and strict, especially on holidays or Tet, in important political events of the Party, the State and the Military. Moreover, cadres and soldiers have been doing their tasks in great intensity and high concentration, which has seriously influenced soldiers’ thought, motion and health. Clearly understanding this situation, the Division has directed offices and units to promote the grasp and dissemination of the military and defence viewpoints of the Party; regulations of combat readiness and management of the airspace of the Ministry of National Defence, the Service and the tasks of the Division, etc., thereby helping cadres and soldiers understand the specific features of air combats, difficulties and challenges in doing the tasks. Together, the Division has paid attention to building the spirit, aspiration, honour and pride for each soldier who has been assigned with the tasks of safeguarding the sacred airspace of the Fatherland. To gain high effectiveness, the Division has required offices and units to intensely implement Directive No. 2423-CT/QUTW, dated 09 November 2023 by the Central Military Commission’s Standing Body on “Renovating and improving the quality of political education in the new period”, which focuses on renewing the forms and methods of ideological and political education in grassroots units in the “brief, concise, easy to understand, remember and follow” motto; intensely managing, holding and solving any ideological problems for cadres and soldiers in isolated posts, stations, remote and mountainous areas, timely solving all arising difficulties to avoid any passive and sudden situations, keeping the solidarity and agreement in all units; closely combines the traditional education and experience dissemination with the announcement and grasp of the development of the air combats in recent armed conflicts to make cadres and soldiers well aware of the situations, objects, plots, tricks and features of air combats when the enemies use the high-tech weapons. Doing this helps build their stable spirit and skill, raise their revolutionary vigilance, be ready for combat, trust in the combatting methods and the assigned anti-air weapons and equipment, possess a high determination, become ready to receive and well accomplish all assigned tasks.

A live-firing exercise of Air Defence  Regiment 228 in 2022

Managing and protecting the airspace is a complicated and difficult task as the situations have developed quickly and suddenly, which requires cadres and soldiers, especially the fighting teams, to not only use the technical equipment effectively but also have skills and ability to deal with the situations in a right and flexible way, etc. To meet this requirement, the Division has paid attention to improving the training quality in a comprehensive but focused way; taking the mastery of technical equipment as the core, the synchronous and in-depth training for all-level fighting teams as the centre, the management, protection of the airspace, and the building of the revolutionary, regular, highly-skilled and modernised Division as the training target. Accordingly, for combat teams in regiment and division levels, it is a must to train the skills of managing the airspace and firing areas; methods of receiving and giving orders in echelon; coordination process, and rules of managing the airspace and flights. For combat teams in firepower units, it needs to train the capturing and chasing of the low-flying and super low-flying targets; coordination orders and actions in the teams; combat against flying vehicles in complicated situations such as breaking, jamming and intense ones; intensely train the personal goals, the combat coordination among small groups, sub-units to the whole combat teams, etc.

Presently, there has been a drastic development regarding the vehicles and methods of air combat such as the strong electronic suppression, break-in low-flying, stealth, high-tech weapons, etc. in order to counteract our radar system. To deal with this issue, the Division has paid attention to training to use, master and take full advantage of types of existing technical equipment; improve the combat coordination among forces (radars, missiles, anti-air artilleries) in managing and protecting the airspace. Accordingly, the Division, on the one hand, has enhanced the training to improve the ability of detection and identification for the watch towers and anti-air observatories to quickly discover the targets, on the other hand, intensely trained soldiers to fully bring into play the tactical and technical functions of new and advanced equipment, effectively apply the anti-jamming and optical television functions to “disperse the jam to find the enemies”, detect the targets from afar, create the active posture and timely solve any situations; at the same time, enhance the training to improve the ability of moving, retreating and conducting the combat combined with the diversion and camouflage to effectively deal with the new methods of air combats. To improve the skills and practical experience for soldiers, the Division has organised and attended the contests, competitions and exercises at all levels, taking them as an important factor to evaluate the training quality and effectiveness in offices and units in order to draw the experience, adjust and complete the training plans and contents in the following time. In 2023, the Division won the first prize in the Contest of Cryptographic Techniques among the Air Defence forces; the second prize in the Contest of anti-air missile battalion commanders, the Contest of watch towers, low-flying aircraft shooting teams and UAV suppression teams; and the third prize in the Exercise of commanding - staff combat teams in radar regiments.

UAV combat training

Together, the Division has strengthened its organisation and staff; strictly maintained the rules of combat readiness, timely and accurately solved all situations without any passiveness and suddenness. Seriously grasping and following the seniors’ resolutions, directions and plans on the force organization, directly Plan No. 2168/KH-PKKQ, dated 08 June 2022 on the organisation of the Air Defence-Air Force Service in the 2021-2030 period and the following years, the Division has led and directed the building of plans on merging and dissolving offices and units correctly and on schedule, at the same time, frequently checked and strengthened its organisation and staff, resolutely downsized the redundant staff in offices, prioritised enough staff for units in their combat readiness tasks, or units in remote areas; maintained the strength and technical equipment as the plans, being ready to do the tasks in all situations. Especially, the Division has drastically directed offices and units to research, update and complete the systems of combat documents; timely add the situations of enemies to the combat plans, and build the systems of training exercises which are suitable and practical to the combat situations in the present time; strictly maintained the discipline and regulations of combat readiness and airspace management; enhanced the inspection and alarm of changing the combat readiness state; combined the combat readiness duty with the training of capturing and chasing targets to bring soldiers closely to the combat situations and improve their  problem-solving skills. Besides, the Division has regularly researched to hold the features of combat areas and the enemies’ fighting tactics; proactively advised the Service to adjust and place the radar stations, anti-air observatories and watch towers throughout the assigned areas; closely coordinated with other friendly units based on the plans of managing the airspace, strictly followed the rule of exchanging information, reports and alarms on the situations in the air and the ground, and brought into play its overall strength in managing and protecting the airspace. Since 2023, the Division has performed 11 phases of combat readiness duties with 100% duty units having successfully accomplished their task; effectively deployed the radar forces, systems of anti-air observatories, watch towers; closely managed the flying activities in the assigned areas; the quality of receiving and transmitting information has exceeded the targets without any shortcomings, mistakes, losses, slowness and fake reports.

In order to meet the task requirements of combatting, managing and firmly protecting the assigned airspace, the Division has paid attention to sufficiently and timely conducting the logistic-technical support for the tasks. Offices and units have made synchronous solutions for improving the quality of supports, especially soldiers’ spiritual life and health; maintained enough logistic support for the tasks, and the technical one for vehicles and equipment. For the past few years, the Division has well executed the Emulation Movement of “the Military Logistics following Uncle Ho’s teachings” and the Campaign 50; the regulations on maintaining and storing weapons have been seriously adhered to; the “Technical Day” has been well conducted. Especially, the Division has paid attention to further training skills, building the technical support teams from regiments to battalions, which have done the on-site support, and been ready for any situations. With the spirit of “first seeing, first serving”, and bringing into play the pivotal roles of the logistic-technical forces and mobilising the majority of cadres and soldiers’ attendance, the  logistic-technical targets of the Division have been fully met and even beyond the given plans; the technical coefficients of the equipment and vehicles have been frequently kept high. The Division has been basically successful in technically supporting the new-gen equipment in echelon.

Clearly understanding the honour and responsibility of the “sky-guarding” soldiers, the Air Defence Division 365 has continued to bring into play the spirit of solidarity, coordination, proactiveness and creativity to build the “elite, compact, strong” unit, together with other forces in the Air Defence-Air Force Service to successfully accomplish the task of managing and firmly protecting the Fatherland’s airspace in all situations.

Colonel HOANG PHUC DUONG, Commander of the Division