Enhancement of the military’s comprehensive quality and combat power is a consistent, strategic guideline of our Party and State with a view to ensuring that the military can complete its core political mission of firmly defending the Fatherland in any situations. Therefore, the entire military needs to continue to thoroughly grasp and successfully operationalise this guideline by means of many synchronous, scientific solutions.

On deeply grasping defence, military viewpoints and guidelines of the Party, especially those on strengthening defence strength to meet requirement and mission of safeguarding the Fatherland, in recent years, the Central Military Commission (CMC) and Ministry of National Defence (MND) have led and directed the entire military to exercise solidarity and overcome all difficulties and challenges to build a “revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern” army with some services, arms, and forces advancing straight towards modernity; step up organisational adjustment in an “adept, compact, strong” direction; ceaselessly enhance comprehensive quality and combat power by means of many synchronous solutions. The process has brought about comparatively comprehensive outcomes.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visits military hardware at the Vietnam International Defence Exhibition 2022 (Photo credit: VNA)

In the coming time, the world and region are likely to witness rapid, complex, and unforeseeable developments. Strategic competition among major powers, local conflicts, sovereign and territorial disputes in certain regions, development and application of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and nontraditional security challenges have been exerting impacts on the cause of safeguarding the Fatherland of our people. The situation requires the entire military to further promote solidarity and unity, bring into play proactiveness and creativeness, and work out many measures to increase comprehensive quality and combat power in order to meet requirement of defending the Fatherland in the new circumstance, most notably the following solutions.

First, it is necessary to concentrate on making the military politically strong, which provides foundation for promoting comprehensive quality and combat power. This is both a requirement and fundamental principle for building the military. It is also the prerequisite for ensuring that the military always maintains nature of the working class and character of our people and nation firmly. This will enable our military to clearly identify political direction and fighting objectives, have high resolution, and be ready to undertake and accomplish all assigned tasks. To make the military politically strong requires the entire military to first and foremost grasp key issues of Marxism-Leninism concerning military building, Ho Chi Minh’s military ideology, and the Party’s new viewpoints and thinking about military and national defence, which are displayed in the 13th National Party Congress, the 11th Military Party Congress, military strategy, national defence strategy, and the work: “Some matters of military guideline and national defence strategy in the cause of constructing and safeguarding the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new era” of the Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong. On the basis of such perception, the CMC and MND identify policies and solutions to lead and direct the building of a strong military in terms of politics, ideology, morality, organisation, and cadre, especially the direction of building an “adept, compact, strong” military. At the same time, there is a need to firmly maintain the principle of “the Party’s absolute, direct leadership of the military in every aspect”; make the Military Party Committee as well as party committees and party organisations at all levels pure, strong, and exemplary; continually enhance their leadership capacity, combat power, solidarity, unity, and core role in leading units to perform missions. The Military Party Committee and party committees and party organisations at all echelons need to focus on training a corps of cadres, who have fine dignity, talent, prestige, and high exemplary spirit; dare to think, dare to say, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, dare to reform, dare to confront difficulties and challenges, and dare to act for the common interest.

In today’s context, hostile forces step up doing damage to our revolution, and the military is one of their targets. The situation requires departments and units to closely combine increased effectiveness of party work and political work in missions, especially in training and combat readiness, with reforming quality of ideological, political education, information, and propagation about revolutionary tradition and missions of the military as well as partners of cooperation, objects of struggle, and hostile forces’ plots of sabotage. Departments and units in the military also need to foster soldiers’ political steadfastness, high revolutionary vigilance, and willpower to overcome all difficulties and challenges to successfully complete their missions, deserving to be a political force and a fighting force absolutely faithful to the Fatherland, Party, State, and people. It is also important to successfully carry out internal political protection work; promote inspection and supervision with a view to preventing and punishing violations of discipline and law; actively struggle against false, hostile viewpoints to contribute to firm protection of the Party’s ideological battle position in each department, unit, and entire military.

Second, force organisation continues to be adjusted in an “adept, compact, strong” direction, striving for building a revolutionary, regular, elite, modern People’s Army by 2030. On the basis of achievements, party committees, commanders, and commissars of departments and units continue to grasp and implement the Party’s objectives and viewpoints on military building to meet requirements and missions of protecting the Fatherland in the new situation; closely follow guiding mottos of Resolution No. 05-NQ/TW, dated January 17th, 2022 of the Politburo (13th tenure) and Resolution No. 230-NQ/QUTW, dated April 2nd, 2022 of the CMC to seriously carry out Plan No. 1228/KH-BQP, dated April 25th, 2022 of the MND on the organisation of Viet Nam People’s Army (VPA) in the 2021 – 2030 period and beyond. In the coming months of 2023, it is necessary to focus on successfully realising the “Year of force organisational adjustment” and completing force adjustment in most of organisations as provided in the annual plan. Party committees, commanders, and commissars of departments and units are determined to basically accomplish building of an “adept, compact, strong” military by 2025. Efforts need to be focused on promulgating regulations on functions, missions, authorities, and working relationships of some departments and units under organisation adjustment; developing organisational tables of some departments and units in peacetime and wartime; reorganising public non-business units in the 2021 – 2030 period and beyond. The CMC and MND are to report on the Project on the list of management, command, leadership titles and positions in the VPA to the Politburo; manage and use military strength properly, prioritising fully-staffed regiments and divisions as well as units in charge of combat readiness; monitor the recruitment, admission, and training closely in accordance with regulations; well implement policies on military personnel, especially those working in units which are merged or dissolved.

The MND instructs departments and units in the entire military to review the Law on military service of 2015; create a file on drafting the Law on amendment of the Law on military service of 2015; create a file on making the Law on security, defence industry and industry mobilisation and submit it to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for consideration and inclusion in the lawmaking programme of the National Assembly (15th tenure). Further efforts should be made to implement the Politburo’s Resolution on ensuring weapons and equipment for the VPA by 2025; develop a plan to ensure equipment for the VPA by 2030 and beyond; adjust targets for building, mobilising, and receiving the reserve in units, which are disbanded, merged, and reorganised according to Plan No. 1228/KH-BQP; inspect mobilisation readiness and build a powerful reserve.

Third, it is important to step up training work, carrying out exercises, and education and training; strengthen discipline, law, and combat power of the military. The entire military needs to make more breakthroughs in training as defined by Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated December 20, 2022 of the CMC on “Enhancing training quality in the 2023 – 2030 period and beyond”; grasp and well realise the “basic, practical, firm” motto as well as viewpoints, principles, and combination in training; attach importance to intensive, synchronous training in a modern direction and training to master existing weapons and equipment, especially the new, improved one. There is a need to promote maneuver training, night-time training, and high-intensity training in any conditions to ensure that the training is close to missions, adversaries, areas, environments, and operational plans. More attention is paid to increased quality of training and performance in national, regional, and international competitions. The entire military continues to make drastic reform in training support, focusing on researching, planning, and constructing the system of shooting ranges and training grounds in the 2021 – 2030 period and vision for 2050; enhance joint operations exercises in the areas and defence zones on various scales and modalities with a focus on force-on-force exercises, electronic warfare drills, cyber warfare exercises, and communications exercises at all levels. The entire military also needs to abide by regulations on combat readiness seriously and effectively; proactively research and predict situations correctly to timely advise the Party, State, CMC, and MND to put forth solutions to respond to situations in a timely, effective manner without being surprised and confused; firmly protect the airspace, waters, borders, localities, and cyberspace, especially in strategic directions and key areas.

Military academies and colleges continue to grasp and effectively implement Resolution No. 1657-NQ/QUTW, dated December 20th, 2022 of the CMC on reforming education and training. They are to conduct comprehensive reform, including viewpoint, guiding ideology, programme, content, process, methodology, leadership, direction, and operation at all levels of education, avoiding overlapping and disconnectedness with the national education system. Attention is paid to examination, re-examination, perfection, and implementation of the standard programme for graduates in all training majors, and establishment of the alignment between colleges and units. The system of military colleges is to be built in the direction of standardisation and modernisation.

Furthermore, the entire military should concentrate on building comprehensively strong, “exemplary, representative” units; improve quality of training military customs and courtesies and promoting good order and discipline; attach importance to ideological guidance for soldiers and guarantee of safety in departments and units. The entire military also adopts synchronous, drastic measures to conduct legal education; strictly maintains daily, weekly schedules as defined by regulations; pay attention to inspection to prevent violation of State law and military discipline, promoting good order and discipline and enhancing military power.

Fourth, the entire military attaches importance to logistical, technical support and development of defence industry. Departments, units, and schools need to provide timely logistical support for all missions, especially combat readiness, training, exercises, and competitions at home and abroad as well as response to natural disasters and search and rescue. They are to develop plans to provide logistical support at strategic and operational levels; establish logistical posture to be ready to support a potential war; proactively exploit resources for combat readiness; build comprehensively strong logistical units; improve and adopt methods of logistical support in association with the novel financial management mechanism; step up practising thrift and countering wastefulness in connection with the emulation movement: “The military logistics follows Uncle Ho’s teaching”; actively boost farming production and epidemic prevention, ensuring soldiers’ healthy life. In addition to logistic work, departments, units, and schools need to provide weapons and technical equipment support in a sufficient, timely, synchronous manner for missions, especially for units newly merged or established; continue to implement the mid-term plan for the 2021 – 2025 period, programmes, plans, and projects on technical work; enhance capacity to conduct research and master repair technology as well as new, modern, high-tech weapons and equipment; promote international cooperation programmes about military technology; closely appraise programmes and projects on acquisition, production, and upgrade of weapon systems and technical equipment; successfully implement the Campaign 50; ensure working safety and hygiene; prevent and respond to fire and explosion.

The defence industry must be further built and developed in a modern, dual-use direction on the ground of researching and applying achievements of the 4IR, striving for mastering design, foundational technologies, and core technologies and increasing localisation rate in defence production. It is necessary to speed up researching, developing, and testing prototypes as well as conducting verification and acceptance activities within ongoing national projects in connection with launching new programmes, plans, and projects; step up investment projects within the national defence industry programme in the 2021 – 2025 period, especially the key projects; put into service strategic weapons and new, modern weapon systems researched and developed by Viet Nam, contributing to increased combat power of the VPA and strengthening of defence potential and capabilities to meet requirements and missions of safeguarding the Fatherland in the new situation.

Senior Lieutenant General NGUYEN TAN CUONG, Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Central Military Commission’s Standing Committee, Chief of the General Staff, Deputy Minister of National Defence