Factory A45, a general technical unit and a leading repair facility of the Air Defence - Air Force and the whole Army, is tasked with repairing aviation missiles and technical equipment for flight operations and management at Air Force airports and low-altitude air defence missiles of the entire Army. After 45 years of construction and growth, generations of employees of the Factory have always upheld the spirit of solidarity, initiative, creativity, and self-reliance to overcome difficulties and fulfill assigned tasks. It has repaired tens of thousands of test vehicles and weapons, aviation technical equipment, low-range anti-aircraft missiles, etc., in an adequate and timely manner for training, combat readiness, and combat units to make an important contribution to building the Service revolutionary, regular, elite, and modern for the firm protection of the airspace of the Fatherland. Thanks to these achievements, the Factory has been awarded two Second-Class Feat Orders, one Third-Class Feat Order, and one Third-Class Fatherland Defence Order by the State. It has also been presented the flag of “Leading unit among defence enterprises” by the Ministry of National Defence and the Service for many consecutive years.

In recent years, in response to the requirements of building a modern Service, as the Factory has been assigned with multiple important tasks and participated in major and key projects of the Service and the Ministry of National Defence with high complexities and requirements, there are many difficulties and challenges. To fulfil the assigned tasks, the Factory Party Committee and Directorate have advocated continuing to promote the tradition of solidarity, the spirit of initiative, and creativity to actively implement all aspects of work through several synchronous and drastic measures with importance attached to the building of high-quality human resources, modernisation of facilities, in-depth investment in technology, and innovation of the management mechanism and scientific research cooperation with other domestic and international agencies and units, etc., to improve its capacity to exploit and master weapons repair technology and modern technical equipment.

Facing the shortage of staff, especially leading experts, skilled technicians, etc. the Factory has focused on building a contingent of technical cadres and staff which is sufficient in quantity, balanced in professions, and high in quality and considered it a critical factor that is decisive to the performance of the assigned political tasks and the modernisation of the Service. Adhering to the superiors’ resolutions, directives, and instructions, the Factory Party Committee and Directorate have directed functional agencies to develop and perfect the standards of organisation, payroll, work, and qualification requirements applicable to positions and titles on repair lines. At the same time, they have regularly reviewed and properly assessed the current situation of the contingent of technical cadres and staff, thereby, to develop strict sourcing plans in accordance with principles and processes, and suitable to the qualifications and capacity of each individual, to ensure the balance and synchronisation of professions. During the implementation, besides sending technical cadres and staff with high professional qualifications to intensive training courses at prestigious domestic and foreign institutions, the Factory has also focused on on-the-job training and closely associated training and scientific research with the performance of tasks. Over the past time, the Factory has established multiple research and training groups in agencies and workshops and assigned specific tasks to each group whose capacity and levels are evaluated by product quality. Concurrently, each technical cadre and staff have been required to have at least one research project that can be applied to repairing weapons and technical equipment annually. Therefore, the Factory’s technical cadres and staff have been able to promote their own strengths, improve their teamwork skills, advance in qualifications, and develop independence in research. In addition, the Factory has actively cooperated with other units in implementing research schemes and projects, transferring technology to renovate weapons and equipment, etc., which has been considered an important “channel” to foster the technical cadres and staff. So far, the Factory has had 57 doctors, masters, and engineers and many high-level cadres and workers who are approaching the level of leading experts in weapons, aviation equipment, and low-range missiles of the Service. They are the cores in scientific research and application of new technologies in manufacturing, repair, renovation, and improvement of product quality and ready to meet the requirements of the Factory’s future tasks.

On-the-job training at the factory

Exploiting, mastering, and repairing new weapons and technical equipment, especially specialised computer systems in the intelligent control components on aircraft, missiles, aviation bombs,... are difficult tasks as most of them and technological documents are not available. Meanwhile, the Factory’s existing manufacturing lines and repair equipment have not met the requirements and tasks. In that context, along with the preparation of human resources, the Factory has focused on in-depth investment in technology for the products that the Service and the Army are in need of both in the short and long terms. Accordingly, regarding new and modern weapons and technical equipment, the Factory has researched and applied technologies to analysing and compiling documents for in-depth exploitation, such as reverse research and design of the hardware schematic diagram system, development of “standard parameters”, exploitation of software programming algorithms, etc. By mastering modern weapons and technical equipment, the Factory has actively chosen technologies to apply to designing and manufacturing specialised measuring and testing equipment and tools for repair work to ensure the combination with existing equipment and facilities and the suitability with the technology level of the country and the Factory. Based on the research results, the Factory has concentrated on designing, testing, and building technological lines and processes for repair and mass production. During the implementation, to achieve high efficiency, the Factory has directed its Technical Department to coordinate with functional agencies in developing plans and options and researching in a synchronous and unified manner. Attention has been paid to selecting highly qualified and skilled technical cadres and staff to establish major-based specialised teams and groups, such as electronic circuit engineering, automatic control engineering, software programming,...; calculating and estimating funding, materials, and equipment; choosing good weapons and equipment for research; and strengthening cooperation with research centres, institutes, and defence factories in effectively implementing scientific research projects and schemes. So far, the Factory has compiled 189 sets of technological processes, 195 sets of technology sheets, 37 sets of schematic diagrams of electrical circuits, 55 sets of testing procedures, and 40 sets of technical design documents; designed and manufactured more than 100 measuring and testing equipment for exploiting and repairing weapons and technical equipment; built 6 modern, synchronous manufacturing and repair lines; and fully mastered the technologies for repairing the control components of aviation missiles for training and combat readiness tasks of the units. In particular, the Factory has researched and mastered the “Factory- A45-branded” technologies for repairing modern equipment and weapons, such as military computers A-313-13, BAGET 55- 44.02, and BSVM-486-2; fire control and satellite navigation system VT-05 on Su-30MK2 aircraft; aviation missile preparation stations; reverse research and design of electrical schematic diagrams; development of technologies for repairing new generations of aviation-corrected missiles and bombs equipped on Su-30MK2 aircraft; and other specialised military computers of Aviation Engineering, to promptly meet the repair needs and proceed to manufacture modern and high-tech weapons and equipment for the Service and the whole Army.

Additionally, the Factory has promoted the innovation of management and administration mechanisms and methods of organising scientific and technological activities to bring scientific research activities into depth and substance. Under the motto of changing the scientific research management method from breadth to depth with focus and key points, the Factory has closely combined the Directorate’s centralised and unified management and administration with decentralisation, empowering, and increase of the autonomy and professionalism of collectives and individuals, especially promotion of the role of the project leaders. Accordingly, the Factory has renewed the process and method of selecting research projects and tasks towards “Efficiency, increased applicability, and product-based evaluation”. Over the past time, the Factory has carried out various forms of research, such as self-research, group research, cooperative research, technology transfer, etc. It has regularly organised the review and approval of programs, scientific projects, and technical improvement initiatives, selected highly applicable products and projects for inclusion in research programs, and continued developing and funding for manufacturing and testing. Particularly, for qualified products, the Factory has prioritised ordering production in large quantities and ensuring the interests of the authors. On the other hand, it has promulgated various regimes and policies; created conditions to encourage and motivate technical cadres and staff to actively participate in scientific research; put scientific and technological research activities into reality; associated scientific and technological research tasks with actual manufacturing and repair to bring about economic, scientific, and technical efficiency. Annually, the Factory has based the evaluation of task performance of individuals and units on the scientific and technological research results; organised preliminary reviews and summaries to evaluate the completion of the plan of each project; and promptly praised and rewarded organisations and individuals that have had outstanding achievements in scientific research activities and innovation initiatives. As a result, during the past 5 years, the Factory has successfully implemented 46 technical improvement projects and technical innovation initiatives applied to repairing, improving, and upgrading weapons, technical equipment, and manufacturing lines to contribute to improving product quality and meeting requirements and tasks in the new situation.

Along with the above contents and solutions, the Factory has actively mobilised resources to invest in upgrading workshops and warehouses in a regular and modern manner; planned the technological premises to ensure that functional capacity is suitable to the needs and purposes of use for the manufacturing and repair lines; been ready to meet the requirements of task development; and continued researching and proposing to the Service and the Ministry of National Defence to assign more tasks in new fields and of strengths of the Unit, to strive to build the Factory to be an important link in the manufacturing chain of weapons and high-tech equipment of Vietnam.

Senior Colonel HOANG TRUNG KIEN, Factory Director