Training and combat readiness constitute a central, routine task of units across the Military. Hence, renewing and improving training and combat readiness act as a determinant to the Military’s synergy and combat power and its defence of the Homeland in all situations.
In 2019, the whole Military performed its tasks amidst the complex developments of the global and regional situation, armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, and disputes over sea and island sovereignty, particularly in the East Sea. Domestically, the hostile forces stepped up their sabotage plan in all fields; land disputes, environmental pollution, epidemics, weather and climate witnessed complicated developments; hot spells, storms, floods, and landslides occurred in many places and caused serious consequences; the organisational structure of several units within the Military experienced adjustments; a lot of types of weapons and technical equipment deteriorated, which partly negatively impacted on units’ training and combat readiness.
Under the all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction, offices and units across the Military grasped and seriously implemented resolutions and directives by the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Ministry of National Defence (MND) on training and combat readiness, with a focus on the CMC’s Conclusion 60-KL/QUTW, dated January 18th, 2019 on continuing to realise the Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW and the Directive on the defence-military work by the Chief of the General Staff, thereby achieving a positive, comprehensive change in training and combat readiness. There was a reform in the work of training direction, management, and operation in accordance with the task requirements and the operational area of each force and unit. The all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction role was promoted. Importance was attached to maintaining and carrying out the party and political work in training effectively. Various measures were taken to renew and make the training programme, content, organisation, and method relevant to the Military’s organisational structure and build-up and the Homeland protection in the new situation. A focus was placed on making investments in providing logistics support for training and especially constructing shooting ranges, general training grounds, and training grounds for specialised forces. Offices and units within the Military organised sufficient training programmes under the approved plans.
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| A joint exercise conducted by the Infantry Regiment 1 (the Division 9) and the Armour Brigade 22 (the Army Corps 4) |
In the training process, the entire Military adhered to the motto of “basics, practicality, and thorough grasp,” attached great value to providing synchronous and intensive training for all groups of troops, flexibly applied 3 viewpoints, 8 principles, and 6 combinations to training, given priority to training based on tasks, opponents, operational areas, and combat situations, organised refresher courses to improve the all-level cadres’ capacity to manage and command the training work and particularly their methods of training infantry combat skills, ground force tactics, and specialised tactical skills, and closely combined military training with political education, logistics and technical support, and physical training for troops. For detachment-level units, great value was attached to providing training for the main force, the local force, the infantry force, the border guard force, and other specialised forces, training troops to master the existing weapons and equipment, especially the new ones, and organised general exercises, live-firing exercises, joint exercises, and defensive zone exercises with the absolute safety. Via training courses and exercises, offices and units studied and developed theories of the people’s Homeland protection warfare and Vietnam’s military art in the new condition, while completing their combat readiness determination and projects and combat plans at all levels, thereby maintaining readiness for opportunely, effectively dealing with possible situations.
However, in addition to the above-mentioned achievements, the awareness of several party committees, commanders, cadres, and soldiers towards the training and combat readiness task has been limited. Preparations for training, particularly in terms of plan, timetable, lesson plan, and material have yet to be elaborate. The training content, programmes, and method have yet to be comprehensive. The application of information technology and simulation technology to training has yet to be really effective. The quality of training at some offices and units has yet to be equal or stable. The exploitation and use of weapons and technical equipment have yet to be effective, particularly by the service forces at offices and cadres, schools, hospitals, economic-defence units, independent stations and posts. Notably, the training work in some units has yet to be conducted under the regulations and they have let loss of safety happen during the training process.
At present, the situation worldwide and regionally continues to be complex, especially at the East Sea, which imposes higher requirements on the Military build-up and the Homeland defence. Hence, training and combat readiness must be seen as a routine, central task. To successfully fulfil this important task, the whole Military should keep grasping the Party’s defence-military viewpoints and guidelines as well as resolutions and directives by the CMC and the MND, while comprehensively adopting all measures for unceasingly improving the quality of training and combat readiness, with a focus on the following.
First, enhancing the work of education and propagation to raise cadres and soldiers’ awareness and responsibility for training and combat readiness. Offices and units’ party committees and commands within the Military should thoroughly grasp the Party’s defence-military viewpoints and guidelines as well as resolutions and directives on the training work by the CMC and the MND, particularly the CMC’s Conclusion 60-KL/QUTW, dated January 18th 2019, on continuing to execute the CMC’s Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW, the Directive on the defence-military work of 2020 by the Chief of the General Staff, and higher echelons’ guiding documents on this work. Grounded on those documents, it is necessary to enhance the all-level party committees and commands’ leadership and direction over the work of political and ideological education via practical, effective measures relevant to the particularities of each group of troops, office, unit, and area. Great value should be attached to grasping the Party’s new thought on the Homeland protection and resolutions and directives by the CMC and the MND on training and combat readiness in order to avoid being falling into passivity and effectively deal with all situations. It is important to develop and effectively apply the Project on “renewing political education at military units in the new period” so as to raise a sense of revolutionary vigilance among troops and render them fully aware of the importance and necessity of enhancing the training and combat readiness work. Moreover, it is essential to make troops fully understand objects of struggle and the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage against our country’s revolution and thoroughly grasp combat directives, resolutions, commands, and plans as well as each office and unit’s task.
Amidst the hostile forces’ plots to “depoliticise” our Military and encourage “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” from within, offices and units must educate their troops to fight against subjectivity, ideological deviation, lack of vigilance, and absolutisation of weapons and technical equipment. At the same time, they should build up their cadres and soldiers’ faith in our combat method, military art, tradition, and experiences in fighting foreign aggression as well as in the existing weapons and equipment. In the education process, it is necessary to actively renew and make educational forms and methods more practical and effective and combine the results of training with the all-level party committees, commands, and key cadres’ task performance as a yardstick for the annual evaluation of cadres and party members’ quality.
Second, studying and correctly anticipating the situation, carefully practising combat projects, building combat resolutions, and opportunely, successfully dealing with situations. Against the backdrop of intertwined opportunities, challenges, traditional and non-traditional threats, opponents and partners, and sabotage by the hostile forces, particularly in cyberspace, offices and units within the entire Military, especially at the strategic level, should proactively improve their cadres’ capacity to research, analyse, and assess the situation correctly. The General Staff should direct offices, units, and schools across the Military to formulate their training content and programmes properly, maintain measures for combat readiness, adjust their organisational structure and build their force in accordance with their tasks and particularities. To that end, strategic offices of the General Staff should proactively study and propose measures for raising the quality of training and combat readiness associated with defending the national sovereignty over seas and islands, key areas, and national interests. At the same time, it is important to review, supplement, and adjust combat resolutions in accordance with the practical situation and object of struggle, elaborately practise combat projects, build strong defensive zones, heighten a sense of revolutionary vigilance, and maintain readiness for effectively settle possible situations. Offices and units should strictly maintain the order for office, command, and combat readiness duty, proactively give advice to and cooperate with local party committees and authorities and relevant forces in implementing projects for defending national territorial sovereignty and security, political security, and social safety and order in the areas, actively take part in crime, smuggling, trade fraud, natural disaster, and epidemic prevention and control, particularly in the fight against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Third, stepping up a comprehensive reform in the training content, form, and method in a focalised manner. Grasping and well executing the motto, viewpoints, and combinations in the training process, offices, units, and schools should further study and grasp the situation, particularly the developments of object of struggle, the areas’ characteristics, and our organisational structure, weapons, and technical equipment to create an appropriate reform. In this regard, significance should be attached to supplementing the training content and programmes for specialised and newly-founded forces and newly-merged units, researching and developing military sciences and technologies, and effectively implementing the National Defence Strategy of Vietnam, the Military Strategy of Vietnam, the Strategy for National Border Protection, and the Strategy for the Homeland Protection in Cyberspace. Focuses of the reform in training content and programmes should be placed on increasing the duration of practical training, night-time training, and manoeuvre training, providing high-level situations-based training, and training troops to master new weapons and technical equipment and conduct search and rescue operations. At the same time, consideration should be given to renewing the training procedure at military academies and schools, changing the method of competitions and examinations in an objective, transparent, and practical fashion, resolutely fighting against the “achievement disease” during the training process, combining military training with political education, associating training and education with combat training, and aligning military training with physical training.
In the training process, units should attach importance to improving the quality of join training, practice, and exercises in accordance with combat reality and the particularities of each area, force, and unit. Also, the training work must be aimed at dealing with high-tech warfare, cyber warfare, and non-traditional challenges. Due regard should be paid to enhancing exercises conducted by services, corps, and local units and forces within defensive zones, holding live-firing field exercises in parallel with the trial of new weapons and military hardware, and organising combat exercises for sea and island defence as well as electronic and cyber warfare drills. Commanders and offices at all levels should enhance inspections prior to, during, and after each training period and conduct both regular and irregular inspections and re-assessments of the training results. Due attention should be paid to raising the quality and effectiveness of the party and political work in the training process, encouraging troops on the training ground, commending positive elements, and multiplying safe and effective training models. Besides, it is essential to step up inspections of safety regulations during training process and exercises in order to both ensure safety of troops and weapons and improve the synergy and combat readiness capacity of offices and units within the entire Military.
Fourth, renewing the work of logistics support for training in a synchronous, timely, comprehensive, and focalised manner. It is vital to renew and provide timely, comprehensive, and focalised logistics support for training, ensure budgets for and targets of ammunition, explosives, and petroleum as well as sufficient training materials and grounds, effectively execute the project for training equipment in the third phase, and give priority to newly-founded units, units stationed in the key areas, units tasked with combat readiness, and newly-merged units. In addition, it is important to closely combine budgets allocated by higher echelons with units and localities’ resources and mobilise troops to construct and upgrade facilities, shooting ranges, and training grounds. Offices, units, and schools across the Military should renew the mechanism of logistics support for training in a public and democratic fashion, standardise the training norms for each group of troops, and fight against wastefulness. At the same time, due attention should be paid to providing sufficient, synchronous weapons and technical equipment for training and combat readiness, innovating, modernising, and effectively using training models and equipment. Moreover, it is important to ensure troops’ material and mental life and fitness so that they could successfully fulfil the training and combat readiness task in any circumstance.
Against the increasingly high requirements set by the Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and the Homeland protection, the training and combat readiness work must always be closely, effectively directed and centred on improving the Military’s synergy and combat power and making it “revolutionary, regular, seasoned, gradually modern” and capable of successfully fulfilling all assigned missions.
Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Nghia
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army