Being imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings that “Communication acts as one of the most important tasks in the revolution since it is a determinant to the commanding system’s consistency and the distribution of forces, thereby ensuring victory,” the Signal Corps’ Technical Branch (hereafter the Branch) has provided good technical support for the military communication system, contributing to the glorious victory of the Army and the firm protection of the Fatherland.

For the signal soldiers, technical work serves as a matter of importance, directly ensuring a smooth and effective communication system. Fully aware of that, over the past 70 years, the Branch’s generations of cadres, soldiers, and labourers have always surmounted all difficulties and challenges to successfully fulfil the task of ensuring equipment and technical support, making an important contribution to the glorious achievements of the heroic Signal troops in the cause of national liberation, construction and protection.

At present, the great influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and striking development of science and technology on the requirements set by the direct modernisation of the Corps has been creating opportunities and causing many difficulties for the Branch. One the one side, the Corps is responsible for providing technical assurance for the communication system with many types of old and deteriorated equipment. On the other side, many types of modern equipment with advanced technologies on par with the region and the world have been also put into operation. This has led to a greater demand for technical support while a large number of equipment and communication networks need to be repaired, upgraded and synchronised. Additionally, ensuring technical support for new-generation materiel is very complicated with strict requirements; therefore, the work of technical research, exploitation, and assurance faces a lot of difficulties and hardships. Meanwhile, the Branch’s organizational structure, the warehouse system, and the technical assurance facilities at all levels have yet to live up to expectations. The capacity to provide budget and spare parts has been still limited, etc. Against this backdrop, following Uncle Ho’s teachings that “…it is necessary to anticipate the situation and carefully make preparations in every work,” the Branch has actively advised the Signal Corps’ Party Committee and Command and its affiliates’ Party committees and commanders on strengthening their leadership over the technical work. At the same time, many guidelines and solutions have been adopted in order to well fulfill the tasks.

First of all, the Branch has focused on well performing its function of providing helpful advice on organising the work of ensuring communication equipment in the entire Military in accord with the practical situation of the country and the Military. Thoroughly grasping higher echelons’ resolutions and directives, particularly the Resolution 382-NQ/ĐUQSTW dated November 29^th, 2007 of the Central Military Party Committee (now the Central Military Commission) on directing technical work in the new situation and the strategy to develop the military communication system for the 2011-2020 period, the Branch has advised the Signal Corps’ Party Committee and Commanders on formulating a communication equipment plan, with importance attached to reducing types of equipment, investing in modern ones, and increasing the localisation rate in conformity with the development of Vietnam’s science, technology and military art. Due regard has been paid to the synchronisation and modernisation of communication equipment for units, especially combat readiness ones and the ones stationed in the key areas to meet high-tech war requirements. For the equipment that can be produced domestically, the Branch has proactively cooperated with functional agencies and advised the Ministry of National Defence on directing competent manufacturers such as Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group, Tecapro Company, High-tech Signal Technology Centre, Factory Z755 and so forth to promote application of advanced technologies to producing equipment with modern features. Currently, basic communication equipment at operational and tactical levels has been produced domestically, playing an active role in ensuring equipment, technical support and military security. Along with the proposal to eliminate the old-generation equipment that is no longer in use, the Branch has directly asked units to actively undertake researches and upgrade the old-generation one with usability, while receiving, repairing, synchronising and put into operation the depreciated equipment from telecommunications enterprises so as to strengthen the capacity of the system and provide sufficient equipment for units.

 Uncle Ho ever said that “Try harder and harder. It is necessary to ceaselessly improve political and ideological levels; make efforts to enhance professional knowledge and skills and ensure opportune, accurate, confidential and safe communications to gain many new achievements.” Following Uncle Ho’s teachings, the Branch has focused it leadership on actively adopting reforms and enhancing the quality and efficiency of technical assurance for communication equipment under the motto of “mastering technologies” and “proactively providing technical assurance.” Amidst the rapid developments of electronics and telecommunications, many of pieces of equipment purchased from other countries have short life cycle. Therefore, many measures and solutions have been carried out to ensure technical support in compliance with specific situations. In this regard, significance has been attached to changing the method of technical guarantee from repairing and replacing components to replacing blocks and circuit boards, intensifying the decentralisation of technical assurance, promoting the efficiency of mobile technical assurance, and creating on-the-spot backup supplies. In particular, the Branch has counselled the Signal Corps to mobilise resources to focus on comprehensively improving technical assurance capacity at all levels, thereby creating an in-depth and mutual-support system. Up to now, the system of repair establishments has recovered over 95% of the equipment damage, ensuring stable quality and high reliability. The leading units of communication technology in the Army have successfully repaired high-tech equipment, mastered equipment’s operating system, and manufactured many types of circuit boards to replace imported ones. The Branch has also cooperated with units in making investments in consolidating the technical safety system, and applying circuit board conformal coating technique and wrap-around technique associated with heat dissipation to reduce the environmental impact on the equipment. As a result, the damage rate has been reduced from over 30% to below 10%. Simultaneously, the lifespan and reliability of the equipment have been increased. Particularly, the Branch has been actively piloting the measure for technical assurance based on the life cycle of the equipment being exploited in the sea and island area with initial positive results, opening up a new direction for technical assurance in the coming time.

The more the military communication system is modernised, the more urgent the need for building a contingent of technical cadres and employees capable of managing and executing technical assurance task is. Being aware of that and imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings that “Cadres are the root of all jobs”, significance has been attached to building high quality human resources to satisfy all task requirements. The Technical Department has closely cooperated with the functional agencies in advising the Signal Corps’ Party Committee and Command on building a pool of high-quality technical cadres and employees in terms of political quality, managerial capacity and operational capability and directing its affiliates to concentrate on raising the quality of training and fostering leading cadres and technical personnel. Additionally, great value has been attached to reviewing and arranging the technical staff in accordance with organisational structure and organising retraining courses for technical personnel. The Branch has also paid attention to building a contingent of top experts at the technical assurance establishments at operational and tactical levels and a team of good technicians at the grass-roots units. Besides, it has counselled the Signal Corps’ Party Standing Committee and Commanders to formulate a remuneration policy to encourage technical cadres and employees to  undertake researches and improve their qualifications as well as provide a mechanism to attract and recruit students who have graduated with distinction in electronics, telecommunications, computer science, and information technology. As a result, the Corps’ quality of communication system has been sustainably maintained to meet commanders’ requirements in regular activities, combat readiness and the handling of situations, especially in the border sea, and island areas and the key locations. Bringing into full play the achieved results, in the coming time, the Branch commits itself to continuing to accelerate the implementation of the 12^th Politburo’s Directive 05-CT/TW in parallel with the Campaign 50 and raise the quality of technical assurance for communication equipment in the whole Military, ensuring “opportune, accurate, confidential and safe communications” at all levels in every situation as instructed by President Ho Chi Minh.

Col. Vu Huu Hanh, Head of the Signal Corps’ Technical Department