Facing the requirements and missions of building the People’s Army and safeguarding the Fatherland in the new situation, the entire military continues to step up making a breakthrough in training quality. To do so, identification of key missions and core issues regarding combat training is a matter of significance, a deciding factor in comprehensive quality and combat power of the People’s Army.

In 2022, the entire military took drastic action to carry out the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the Resolution of the 11th Military Party Congress, “the year of implementing the plan to adjust forces,” the building of an adept, compact, strong military advancing towards modernity, and so on. Although many huge tasks were to be undertaken in the context of considerable influence from international and regional situations, and the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to close leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and Ministry of National Defence (MND) as well as utmost effort of all cadres and soldiers, the entire military successfully fulfilled goals and missions, of which many missions were graded as excellent. Units made a breakthrough in renewing and enhancing combat training quality and reaped encouraging results, making vital contribution to increased overall power, firm protection of independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity of the Fatherland, and maintenance of a stable, peaceful environment conducive to building and development of the country.

Amoured vehicles of Ho Chi Minh Municipal Command at the launching ceremony of training season of 2023

In 2023, peace, cooperation, and development remain the mainstream. Nevertheless, the world and region continue to witness unforeseeable, complex, rapid developments. Disputes over territorial sovereignty, waters, and islands pose potential risks to the region. Traditional and nontraditional security threats are likely to occur unpredictably. Under the leadership of the Party and management of the State, the entire military will carry out defence, military work comprehensively according to new requirements and missions. More importantly, this is the first year to implement Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW, dated 20 December 2022, of the CMC on promoting training quality in the 2023 – 2030 period and beyond. To successfully complete this task, the entire military, first and foremost party committees and commanders at all levels, needs to proactively and creatively adopt many synchronous, drastic solutions aimed at making significant breakthroughs in raising combat training quality.

First, it is necessary to reform and improve quality and effectiveness of training leadership and management. On the basis of firm comprehension of the Party’s military, political guidelines and the CMC’s and MND’s resolutions and directives, departments and units in the entire military concentrate on deeply grasping viewpoints, objectives, and solutions of training work identified in the Resolution No. 1659-NQ/QUTW. Training must be comprehensive and close to mission requirements of each unit with a focus on forces in charge of combat readiness and the newly established ones. Education and training of soldiers must take Army training as the central content, land warfare as the core theme, and the missions to protect the Fatherland, regime, lives, and property of people as the utmost goals. Accordingly, party committees at all levels review and formulate special resolutions concerning training work and concretise them through objectives and solutions according to the Party’s new thinking about defence, military work and requirements and missions of building the People’s Army in the new situation, ensuring closeness to features and missions of their units. Special importance must be attached to close leadership of renewing training contents and methodologies, taking combat training in modern warfare as the condition and environment for training soldiers comprehensively.

The effective, synchronous, unified, centralised training management continues to be conducted in the direction of clearly delegating responsibility to each force and level. There needs to bring into full play the role of functional departments in advising, instructing, and coordinating implementation. The implementation process must ensure scientificness, stay on course, and stick to combat requirements, missions, and terrain. In the short term, departments and units in the entire military need to grasp and seriously carry out the Order of defence, military work from the Chief of the General Staff and instructions from functional departments about combat training in 2023, ensuring suitability to units’ characteristics and combat training mission as well as new operational requirements. The training must be comprehensive and synchronous but clearly identify key missions and contents in order to facilitate good implementation. Moreover, it is necessary to actively renew and improve quality of training examination and re-examination. The regular and unplanned examination must ensure comprehensiveness with a focus on weak units, contents with limitations, newly created units, newly strengthened units, good training units, units with good physical fitness test results, and so forth. During the implementation process, there needs to actively apply science and technologies to training management and examination; have effective measures to address signs of subjectivism, delegation of every authority to the lower levels, appropriation of training time and contents, and lowering training targets and requirements; resolutely struggle against all manifestations of showing off accomplishments, boilerplate, and being a slave to achievements.

Second, it is important to seriously and actively renew training contents and methodologies in a realistic, in-depth, synchronous, scientific, close direction with focuses. On closely following the basic training program of the MND, departments and units attach importance to combination between political education and military training, technical training and tactical training, theory and practice, combat skills, physical fitness, and discipline compliance. These issues should be integrated into training programs, contents, and methodologies in a scientific manner. Standing-framed units, besides contents provided in the basic training program, need to be equipped with knowledge of conducting training and methodologies of training, approving lesson plans, and developing training plans.

Training contents should be renewed vigorously in accordance with different types of subject, of which training of cadres is the core issue, enabling them to have a good understanding of organisation and staffing, equipment, characteristics of operations, schemes, plots, and combat methods of adversaries, strategy of “peaceful evolution” and acts of subversion of hostile forces. The training must also ensure that cadres have a good understanding and apply military art of Viet Nam flexibly; be good at practice and training management at their own levels; be aware of practice and training management at the higher echelons; give correct, sound advice suitable to training work. The combined arms units take the criteria for being well-versed in both techniques and tactics, independent operations, operations within higher echelons’ formation, and ability to coordinate operations with services, arms, and armed forces in the local area as the goals of training. Units of services, the Border Guard, arms, forces are to have a good understanding of combined arms tactics and be well-versed in tactics and techniques of their own services, arms, and forces. More importantly, units need to implement regulations on night-time training. All contents in support of night combat must be delivered at night-time, ensuring closeness to each subject. Attention should be paid to practice and integrated training in order to place soldiers into close-to-combat scenarios. Training should also concentrate on long-range manoeuvre in contested environment, manoeuvre at short notice, camouflage on all types of terrain, increased ability to coordinate actions among forces in the face of new operational requirements. Cadres are required to creatively apply knowledge to conduct of drills. Priorities are given to integrated drills, drills for coordinating operations among units from various services and arms in the area and in the defensive zone, force-on-force drills, live fire drills, defensive zone exercises, and exercises at short notice.

Regarding training methodologies, units must follow correct procedures from easy to difficult levels, from simple to complex levels, from single actions to integrated actions, and from basic to elevated training, thus laying the foundation for creative, flexible application. Soldiers must watch training films or be trained via simulation before undertaking basic training, which serves to develop soldiers’ general awareness.

Third, quality of competition and training support is to be further improved. Departments and units continue to step up training competitions at each level with appropriate contents and forms. The implementation process must attach importance to practicality and effectiveness; focus on vital contents, weaknesses, and issues that need further consensus; be truly objective and reflect reality correctly; draw timely experience; multiply best practices; thoroughly deal with manifestations of being a slave to achievements and investing in competitions but serious dereliction of training units. Functional departments at all levels need to have scientific, concrete plans to work with each unit in terms of training preparations, practice, and conduct of military, national, international competitions, ensuring closeness, high quality, and safety. Special importance should be attached to the Australian Army Skill at Arms Meet 23 Competition (AASAM 2023), SEA Games 32, ASEAN Armies Rifle Meet 31 (AARM-31), 2023 ASEAN Volleyball Tournament, Wrestling Tournament, Judo Tournament, Taekwondo Competition, Shooting Tournament, Marathon organised by CIMS, martial arts championship, football tournament, and volleyball tournament in the entire military, and the 2023 National Athletic Championship.

In the training support process, units must make good, comprehensive, careful preparations in every aspect such as training plans, training materials, shooting ranges, training grounds, and so on. To meet both short- and long-term requirements, functional units and departments need to work out plans and close procedures but take prompt actions to appraise shooting range and training centre planning in the 2021 – 2030 period with a vision for 2050 prior to submitting the MND for approval. They are also required to further research, develop, correct, and supplement training materials; actively apply information technology and simulation technology to basic training and drills to satisfy demands of new missions. More importantly, the entire military needs to reach consensus and strictly implement safety regulations on training grounds and shooting ranges. If the training ground and shooting range are unsafe, all actions are resolutely denied. Moreover, many measures must be taken to conduct training, examination, and rotational drills; work with friendly units and localities to address limitations in training grounds.

Combat training is always a key political task. Units in the entire military, therefore, need to carry out combat training in a creative, flexible, synchronous, comprehensive manner with focuses and take increasingly improved quality as the most important goal during implementation.

Lieutenant General Thai Van Minh, Director of the Military Training Department