Fully aware of the importance of technical work in a strategic mobile main unit, over the past years, the Army Corps 2’s Technical Branch has taken a number of measures to well perform this important work in order to meet the Corps’ mission requirements in the new situation.

With the development of its task, in recent years, technical work has imposed new higher requirements for the Corps. In addition to advantages, the Corps is confronted with many difficulties as most of its weapons and technical equipment have been in use for a long time and in the degradation process; the demand for repair, upgradation and synchronization has greatly increased; its facilities, equipment, technology and technical staff at all levels have yet to keep pace with the task’s development; the budget for technical maintenance has been limited. Against that backdrop, the Technical Branch has proactively advised the Corps’s Party Committee and Command as well as party committees and commands at all levels on the technical work, while promoting its core role in developing and comprehensively implementing measures in ideological, organizational, professional terms in an effort to renew and enhance the quality of this work. Centrepiece of those measures is to improve the technical maintenance capability of technical forces at all levels to meet the requirements for training and combat readiness and ensure that the Corps has great manoeuvrability and raiding capability and successfully fulfils the assigned task in all situations.

The mobile repair force during an exercise

To do so, the Technical Department under the Corps’ Command has advised the Corps’s Command on consolidating the organizational structure and building strong technical offices at all levels on a par with their mission, considering this as the key to the performance of technical work in both short and long terms. To deal with the imbalance in specialities and professional competence among technical staff, the Technical Branch has actively counselled the Corps to adjust the organizational structure of technical forces at all levels in accordance with each unit’s particularities, particularly Corps and brigade-level technical units and those under the Division 325. At the same time, it has adopted synchronous measures to build technical staff’s political stuff, comprehensive capability, and standard professional competence with emphasis placed on building a contingent of technical experts as the core force in specialities and units as well as a pool of new-generation materiel mechanics. Over the past time, the Branch has accelerated the planning work, diversified forms of training and cultivating the technical staff at all levels, closely combined on-the-spot training with the dispatch of cadres for intensive training, and strictly maintained the order for unit-based technical training. It is noteworthy that the Branch has paid due attention to retraining in order to overcome the imbalance in forces among technical specialties and to professional synchronicity training so that “everyone is good at one job and knows many other jobs”, thereby enhancing the task performance of the technical staff at all levels. To realize the breakthrough in “improving the training quality” set by the Corps, the Branch has actively renewed the content and method of training in accordance with objects and technical requirements while paying due regard to training technical support for combat. Accordingly, technical cadres have been trained to grasp the command, staff, and technical coordination and support work at operational and tactical levels in each form of operations. Importance has been attached to training in mastery and exploitation of materiel and vehicles, particularly modern ones as well as in improvement of the technical staff’s capabilities to repair and rescue vehicles and materiel on the field and in complex terrain and weather conditions with the limited space and light. Moreover, due regard has been paid to training to improve technical units’ capabilities in movement and settlement of situations during marches and operations in hi-tech warfare. The Branch has intensified professional training and exercise as well as contests for all objects, regarding this as an important solution to training technical staff and building strong and stable technical units at all levels. As a result, weaknesses in the Corps’ technical staff have been overcome while the task performance of the Technical Branch has been considerably improved.

In addition to consolidating the organizational structure and building the personnel, the Branch has advised the Corps on investing in consolidating and upgrading the system of technical depots and garages at all levels, thereby making a breakthrough in technical facilities. Notably, the Corps’ technical forces have promoted their core role in developing and well implementing the Program to realize the Resolution 382/NQ-ĐUQSTW and the Campaign 50. It has counselled the Corps to mobilize resources for comprehensively upgrading the system of technical depots and workshops at all levels on a regular, uniform, synchronous basis. During the course of implementation, the Technical Department has required the focalized, complete investment in each unit with priority given to essential works of technical support for grass-roots level units, to the upgradation of the General Technical Depot, to investment in technology for the General Repair Battalion under the Corps as well as to repair and synchronization of construction vehicles to improve the capability in mobile technical support. Realities have shown that it is a sound guideline which has provided the basis for the Branch to well decentralize technical support, promote the capability of technical forces at all levels to the full, and combine on-the-spot technical support with mobile technical support to meet all task requirements for the Corps. Up to now, over 90% of the Corps’ depots and protective materiel shelters and nearly 70% of its garages have reached the required standards. The Corps’ capabilities in materiel repair and maintenance and technical support have been considerably improved. Its technical forces are now capable of carrying out extensive vehicle repair and medium-degree tank and armour repair as well as basically mastering technical support for new-generation materiel and vehicles.

To meet the increasingly higher requirements for the technical work, the Branch has stepped up the regularity building, completed regulations, renewed the method of technical support, and actively applied technology to managing and operating the technical work. It should be noted that the Branch has attached significance to improving the quality of technical maintenance of materiel for training and combat readiness tasks. Accordingly, while proactively counselling the Corps to plan the use of materiel in accordance with the task requirements, the Technical Branch has directed units and promoted its core role in repairing, maintaining, and synchronizing materiel of all types. Over the past time, it has taken various measures to conduct the technical work, particularly in training, joint and combined exercises, field training in combination with settlement of situation in complex terrain and weather conditions. In this regard, consideration has been given to decentralizing technical support, improving the task performance of mobile technical teams and groups, effectively promoting the role of upgraded garages, and enhancing the quality of unit-based repair and maintenance. At the same time, great value has been attached to accelerating the movement to encourage technical initiatives and innovations; to actively applying technology to repair and preservation; to enhancing the work of inspection and verification to ensure the quality and reliability of materiel after being repaired. With its efforts and resolve, the Corps has always kept a high technical coefficient of materiel. In the past years, its Technical Branch has closely followed technical standards, contributing to sufficiently, accurately, opportunely ensuring technical support for the Corps to accomplish the tasks of training, exercise, and combat readiness manoeuvrability.

Besides, the Corps’ Technical Branch has actively made technical preparations according to combat projects in accordance with its function as a main corps. To ensure the large number of weapons and equipment for the Corps in modern warfare, the Technical Department has directed units to make elaborate preparations, namely personnel, means, equipment, plans for technical support, and the building of technical posture under the ratified projects to avoid being fallen into passivity. Accordingly, the Branch has proactively built, regularly reviewed, supplemented and completed the system of operational technical documents, with a focus on plans and projects on technical support for the A and A2 tasks as well as for the shift of combat readiness states in accordance with the development of the Corps’ task. Technical offices and units have stepped up education to raise cadres and troops’ awareness of combat readiness task; reserved and closely managed technical equipment and materials for combat readiness; strictly maintained the order for combat readiness duty; intensified training and exercise under the projects; proactively conducted conveys to grasp the potential and capability of technical support in localities and defensive zones. On such a basis, they have well carried out the work of technical mobilization, particularly the building of technical reserve forces in both qualitative and quantitative terms, while developing the plan for tapping the support of on-the-spot forces in order to combine on-the-spot technical support with mobile technical support, form the inter-connected, solid, flexible posture, and meet the requirements for the Corps’ operational task in all situations.

In the upcoming time, the task of the Corps’ Technical Branch will be very arduous. With a sense of responsibility and resolve, the Corps’ Technical Branch will strive to continue to improve its capability comprehensively and the task performance, contributing to the successful fulfilment of the task of a strategic mobile unit and the tradition “Lightning Speed – Daring – Determined to Win” in the new condition.

Sr. Col. Le Luat, Head of the Corps’ Technical Department