The Artillery Technology branch is tasked with advising, directing, and guiding agencies and units to ensure sufficient and timely supply of artillery equipment for training, combat readiness, and combat. Indeed, it not only ensures technical standards for groups of weapons and equipment but also meets the technical needs of soldiers. This is a regular but extremely difficult task because artillery weapons and equipment have degraded after many years of use, and they lack synchronisation.

Being faced with that situation, over the years, following the Party’s guidelines on building a “revolutionary, regular, elite and gradually modern” Army, the Department of Technology has actively advised the Party Committee and Commanders of the Artillery Corps on the planning and use of the available weapons and equipment, the development roadmap of modern weapons and equipment as well as methods and technologies used in technical assurance for new weapons, equipment, forms, and combat plans. Importance is attached to building a technical staff, which is the core fore in technical assurance, with sufficient quality and quantity so that it can be on par with the development of weapons and equipment. However, in reality, the organisation of technical staff is inadequate while the creativity, dynamism, and independent thinking ability of several cadres is limited with low working efficiency. Moreover, the commanding style and the ability to advise, propose, guide, inspect, and organise are not commensurate with the requirements and tasks, especially in the technical assurance of new weapons and equipment. The process of restructuring its organisation has also negatively influenced the aspirations of a number of cadres. Besides, there are shortcomings in the policy to attract qualified cadres and build leading experts. Being aware of those difficulties, Party Committee and Commanders of the Department of Technology have implemented synchronous measures to build a team of qualified technical staff that meets the requirements of force and equipment modernisation, being regular and elite in technical activities.

Leader of the Technological Department of Artillery Corps checks the maintenance of materiel

First, promoting its key role in advising party committees and commanders at all levels, directing, and organising a team of elite, compact, and qualified artillery technicians. Thoroughly grasping all-level resolutions and directives on personnel work, especially Circular No. 195/TT-BQP issued on 24 November 2011 by the Ministry of National Defence on regulations of subjects and standards for training cadres and Circular No. 160/2017/TT-BQP issued on 4 July 2017 on equivalent positions and titles, the Department has concretised the requirements for title standards into specific technical activities close to the field of study and assigned tasks of groups of cadres. The branch has advised party committees at all levels to plan, evaluate, mobilise, appoint, promote, and adopt appropriate personnel policies in which reserve cadres are mobilised and rotated according to their titles and positions. Reorganising the structure of cadres, especially the source of cadres in charge at all levels with proper methods. Diversifying training, associating basic with intensive training to be consistent with the development roadmap of forces, weapons, and equipment of the Corps. Proposing preferential policies for cadres whose inventions, innovations, technical improvements, projects, and scientific topics bring practical effects. Because leading staff with practical experience actively contributes to the development of the Branch, the Department considers the proposal to extend the active service of high-quality cadres who want to continue to serve. Thereby, the issues of excess staff in agencies and shortage in units are solved, balancing the staffing with priority given to key forces in performing tasks. Currently, on-site staff accounts for over 94% of the staff.

Additionally, the effective management and use of technical staff play a crucial role in creating, building, and developing a high-quality staff, especially the technical leaders and commanders in agencies and units. The Department has coordinated with agencies and units to develop a plan to create a source of reserve cadres, overcoming the situation of shortage of cadres at the campaign level and excess at the tactical level. Employing cadres according to their expertise, strengths, capabilities, and ages. Those with outstanding qualities and working capacity are promoted to leadership positions in charge of technical work at all levels. In addition to their prescribed tasks, the Department actively assigned technical tasks, scientific research, etc. for cadres to create favourable conditions for them to promote their capability and gain hands-on experience. The Department regularly makes statistics on the quantity and quality of weapons and equipment as well as supervises the regular operation and the capability to handle technical situations, command and management situations, and working style, especially in combat readiness, training, drills, contests, and competitions, etc. to give a comprehensive assessment on the capability of each cadre, making it easier in the process of detecting and choosing outstanding cadres to develop for future use. 

The Department also attaches importance to associating the management and use of the staff with training, coaching, fostering, and improving their capability. Following the Corps’ development roadmap, the Department proactively proposes sending staff for basic and intensive training at domestic and foreign academies and schools; focusing on training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in technical command and staff, missile specialisations, special weapons, etc. ensuring sufficient capacity to improve, exploit, and effectively use existing weapons as well as future ones. The Department strictly maintains the discipline of technical training, regularly opens refresher courses on professional skills and task change with a focus on professional management of technical staff, weapons, equipment, and regular construction of the Branch; advising, commanding, directing, and administering tasks according to respective positions and titles; mobile repair methods and measures; technology for maintenance and repair of new weapons and technology; exploitation of high-tech equipment; occupational safety and hygiene; good organisation of technical days and Campaign 50; technical command in combat and combat readiness, etc. At the same time, focusing on fostering cadres’ practical knowledge, updating information, improving foreign language skills as well as the ability to research, master modern technology, thus making them able to work in an international environment according to their specialisations. Encouraging and motivating staff to voluntarily research and study in association with the training process for technical staff; setting up internal research groups within units; encouraging cadres to publish theses and research topics relating to their respective majors while creating favourable conditions for staff to participate in scientific activities to improve their professional qualifications. Remarkably, over the years, the Department has directed the whole Branch to associate professional training with commanding style training, training with political and ideological education; promoting self-criticism and criticism, exercising patience and the spirit to overcome difficulties and hardships, thus being ready to fulfil all technical tasks. In the 2007 - 2022 period, the Branch has 41 cadres with postgraduate training while the Department organised 12 training courses for 720 staff. Currently, 71% of its technician staff has university degrees, roughly 26% of them hold postgraduate degrees, and approximately 3% of them are doctorate holders.

Along with training, the Department has promoted scientific research; linked scientific research with building a team of leading experts. On an annual basis, the Department actively develops plans, guides and research orientations on the planning and appropriate use of weapons, equipment, and warehouses according to the vision to 2030; advising on the procurement of modern weapons and equipment; compiling documents on professional training and standards; perfecting the methods of technical assurance, which is suitable to different types and terrains, especially the assurance of artillery ammunition in combat; rationalise the technological process of maintenance and repair to save materials, etc. Stepping up the movement of promoting innovation and technical improvement; registering and approving topics and initiatives; assigning technical tasks to staff; decentralising management and ensuring favourable conditions for research. Moreover, the Department focuses on the recruitment, training, and building of research teams; coordinating with military academies, schools, and institutes to research major topics and to take advantage of modern technology for sample production, experimentation, and product testing. Thereby, virtuous and talented cadres are detected and provided with advantageous conditions to attend intensive training courses, access new documents and thematic information as well as technical research results on high-tech weapons and materials, participate in high-level research, etc. to develop them into leading experts in technical assurance.

By taking drastic and synchronous measures, the quantity of the Corps’ technical staff is generally sufficient, which is 104% compared to the organisation, with a reasonable structure and increasingly high quality. The vast majority of technical staffs have strong political will, pure revolutionary morality, high sense of discipline, enthusiasm, and responsibility at work. Besides, they have professional qualifications, foreign language competence, and informatics certificates that meet the requirements for technical activities, achieving an annual percentage of 95% with good and excellent task completion. This serves as an important basis for improving the quality and efficiency of technical work and building a strong Technology branch, ensuring the successful completion of all assigned tasks for the Corps.

Senior Colonel, Dr. PHAM HONG SINH, Head of the Corps’ Technology Department