Naval Infantry Brigade 147 (Naval Region 1) is tasked with training, combat readiness, and manoeuvre to protect national sovereignty over the sea and islands of its responsibility; it is also responsible for readily providing reinforcements to safeguard crucial targets in distant waters and performing contingency missions. Over the years, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused on taking effective, synchronised measures to achieve an all-round positive change in the Brigade’s task performance, particularly in training and combat readiness work.

Training troops to fight enemy amphibious landing

Thanks to the political resolve of the Brigade’s staff, the quality of training and combat readiness has unceasingly improved; preparations for training have been carefully made; content, methods, direction, management, and operation of training work have been comprehensively reformed; regulations on combat readiness duty, particularly during national holidays and major events of the country, Military, and Navy have been maintained seriously; due regard has been paid to ensuring logistics - technical support for training and combat readiness. The Brigade has been given the title of good training unit by the Ministry of National Defence for many consecutive years; in 2022, it was recognised as “the Navy’s most excellent unit in charge of combat readiness for sea and island protection” by Commander of the Navy.

To obtain those good results, first of all, the Brigade has enhanced its leadership and direction over education and propagation of training and combat readiness work. Viewing training and combat readiness as a central political task, a breakthrough, and a prerequisite for successfully fulfilling all missions, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have regularly exercised their leadership and direction over grasp and execution of higher echelons’ relevant resolutions, directives, and guidance, particularly Resolution 1378-NQ/ĐU, dated 30 March 2023, by the Navy’s Party Committee, Resolution 602-NQ/ĐU, dated 28 April 2023, by the Region’s Party Committee on “raising the quality of training in the period of 2023 - 2030 and beyond” as well as training orders and combat readiness directives by Commander of the Navy. On a yearly basis, all-level party committees have issued specialised resolutions on training and combat readiness, with proper measures to settle drawbacks opportunely. Meanwhile, commands of offices and units have concretised those resolutions and documents into programs/plans on training and combat readiness in accordance with their particularities.

In response to the training and combat readiness requirements of a highly specialised unit with its troops working in a harsh environment, the Brigade has directed all-level party committees and commands to actively renew and diversify content, methods, and forms of propagation and education, closely combine regular education with education based on special topics and education in each training and combat readiness phase and task. Thanks to this approach, each soldier has been fully cognisant of the importance of training and combat readiness to the successful fulfilment of political tasks; troops have clearly understood plots and artifices employed by foreign vessels to violate our national sovereignty over seas and islands as well as advantages, difficulties, targets, and requirements of training and combat readiness in a harsh environment or in complex situations at sea. Consequently, all cadres and soldiers of the Brigade have exhibited their political steadfastness, sense of responsibility, and resolve to successfully accomplish training and combat readiness work in any circumstances.

In addition to propagation and education, the Brigade has made all-round preparations for training and combat readiness. Fully aware of the vital importance of preparatory work to the quality of training and combat readiness, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to proactively design the system of training documents, plans, lectures, models, materials, and grounds and promote knowledge of their cadres and soldiers to invent and upgrade training models and equipment. Regarding personnel preparation, the Brigade has seen its contingent of cadres, particularly those in charge of training work as the key to the quality of training and combat readiness. It has directed its offices and units to actively consolidate a pool of cadres at all levels to meet their task requirements, organise annual full-time refresher courses for their cadres, and train their cadres via weekly, daily training activities simultaneously, under the motto “every drawback of training work must be settled, superiors must train subordinates, offices must train units”, with a focus on units in charge of training new soldiers, combat readiness units, and commanders from squad, platoon, company to battalion levels. Refresher courses for cadres have been centred on reaching uniformity in new and central issues, practical skills, methods of training, capabilities in staff work, organisation, and operation, as well as measures to completely deal with weaknesses. Besides, units across the Brigade have strictly maintained weekly in-service training and regulations on approving lesson plans, while encouraging cadres’ self-study to improve their professional expertise and training methods. As a result, all cadres of the Brigade have been able to be in charge of training work at their level; taking part in training contests held by the Region, they have achieved high performance.

An amphibious landing exercise held by the Brigade

To keep improving its synergy and combat power, the Brigade has made a breakthrough in raising the quality of training for groups of troops. Based on the training motto of “basics, practicality, solidity”, the Brigade has focused on enhancing the quality of training content, programs, management, operation, contests, and outcome assessment for each group of troops. As for units at detachment level, the Brigade has concentrated on training troops to grasp combat projects and take battlefield as the training ground. Units have intensified airborne and amphibious landing training under sea and island protection projects, while increasing long field training at sea. Moreover, units have focused on training troops to improve their long-distance swimming skills and master the existing weapons and equipment. As for new soldiers, the Brigade has directed its offices and units to attach importance to line-up regulation training, physical training, individual and squad-level tactics, and combat skills. Units in charge of training the reserve force have concentrated on several issues relating to naval infantry and tank and armoured specialities.

In the training process, the Brigade has adopted mechanisms of direction, management, and operation in a “focalised, uniform, synchronous, effective” manner “without any overlaps”, providing training for groups of troops under its programs and plans, flexibly adjusting timings, venues, and methods of training in accordance with its tasks, particularly in harsh weather conditions at sea. It has reformed the organisation of contests to make “objective, fair” assessments of training work, “saying no to merit-driven disease”, closely combining regular and irregular inspections. Doing so has enabled the Brigade to improve the working method and style of its managerial and training cadres, assess the outcome of training with substance, opportunely draw lessons, and adopt measures to settle weaknesses in training work completely. As a result, in recent years, the Brigade’s training quality has been increasingly raised; all troops have got pass, with 85% of them obtaining merit or distinction in training work. The Brigade has also earned remarkable achievements in exercises and contests held by higher echelons.

Additionally, the Brigade has strictly maintained regulations on combat readiness, designing combat readiness plans, practising shifting combat readiness states under its combat projects for sea and island protection, increasing patrol and guard to safeguard its assigned targets. At the same time, it has closely cooperated with localities and competent forces in grasping political security and social order and safety in its stationed areas and at sea as the basis for designing, adjusting, supplementing, and perfecting the system of combat documents as well as for practising projects of combat readiness, natural disaster response, and search and rescue, thereby opportunely, effectively dealing with every situation and avoiding falling into passivity.

It is worth noting that the Brigade has attached much importance to ensuring logistics and technical support for training and combat readiness. Due to its task requirements, the Brigade has considered logistics support work as a critical step towards the raised quality of training and combat readiness. Grasping higher echelons’ logistics support directives, the Brigade has frequently ensured logistics material reserves at all levels for regular and irregular missions, while attaching significance to exploiting its stationed areas’ potential and advantages to guarantee troops’ ration and improve troops’ fitness and endurance at sea and on islands. With reference to technical support, due to its different types of weapons and technical equipment, the Brigade has focused on directing its affiliates to stringently comply with regulations on weaponry maintenance and repair, extend equipment lifespan, closely manage and effectively exploit the existing weaponry and technical facilities, and gradually master new weapons and technical equipment in order to improve the quality of training and combat readiness.

Those above-mentioned results and lessons will be an important foundation for Brigade 147 to keep further improving the quality of training and combat readiness in the upcoming time, making contributions to successfully accomplishing the task of protecting national sacred sovereignty over seas and islands in any situations.

Sr. Col. NGO VAN LUA

Commander of the Brigade