Campaign-level, strategic, and defensive zone-related training and exercises represent a routine, central task of importance to improving campaign-level, strategic cadres’ capacity and the Military’s synergy and combat power. Bringing into play the recorded results and experience, the whole Military should focus on renewing and enhancing this important work to meet the requirements set by the Homeland protection.

In response to the development and demanding requirements of the Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and Homeland protection, over the years, in addition to adjustments in the organisational structure and the building of a politically, ideologically, and organisationally strong Vietnam People’s Army (VPA), offices and units have focused their leadership and direction on well performing the training work to create a breakthrough in raising their synergy and combat strength, firmly protecting national independence, sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity, maintaining peace and stability for the country’s development. It is worth noting that competent offices have regularly studied and correctly assessed the situation on a domestic, regional and global scale, identified objects of struggle and the hostile forces’ plots and artifices, analysed and anticipated issues, proposed remedial measures, and opportunely, effectively performed the military-defence task under the Party’s leadership. Due attention has been paid to properly adjusting strategies, completing combat documents, organising forces in strategic directions, and increasing defence in key directions, areas, and regions.

Offices and units have strictly followed the Directive on the military-defence work by the Chief of the VPA’s General Staff, while organising projects-based training and exercises under the approved combat plans and determination. Training courses on campaign-level, strategic command and staff for key cadres of ministries, sectors and localities as well as for commanders of the affiliated offices and units of the Ministry of National Defence (MND) have been held. More importantly, the VPA has successfully organised one-side, two-level command and staff exercises on maps with the participation of personnel, vessels, and civilian means in the defence of seas and islands, poisonous chemical, radioactive, and nuclear incident management exercises, COVID-19 prevention and control exercises, one-side, two-level command and staff exercises on maps with the participation of the anti-terrorism and cyber warfare forces, and district-level “curfew” exercises. Those exercises have helped raise campaign-level, strategic commands and offices’ capabilities in combat organisation and operation as well as consolidate and perfect combat determination and plans in each strategic area and direction and nationwide.

In the time to come, the situation in the world and the region will continue to be complex. Our Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and Homeland protection will impose more requirements on training and combat readiness. To meet those requirements, the entire VPA should drastically, comprehensively take measures, with a focus on renewing and improving campaign-level, strategic, and defensive zone-related  training and exercises.

First of all, offices and units across the Military should keep grasping the Party’s military-defence guidelines, the National Defence Strategy, the Military Strategy, the Strategy to Defend the Homeland in Cyberspace, the Strategy for National Border Protection, and resolutions and directives by the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the MND on the training work, particularly the CMC’s Conclusion 60-KL/QUTW, dated January 18^th, 2019 on continuing to realise the Resolution 765-NQ/QUTW, dated December 20^th, 2012 on raising the training quality in the period of 2013-2020 and beyond, the Directive 917/CL-TM, dated December 4^th, 2020 by the Chief of the VPA’s General Staff on the military-defence work of 2021, and the Guidance 8433/HD-TC, dated December 8^th, 2020 by the Director of the Department of Operations on the staff and combat work of 2021. Grounded on those documents, they should enhance the work of political education and ideological orientation to create a huge positive change in their key cadres’ awareness and responsibility for campaign-level, strategic training and defensive exercises which could be seen as the routine, central political task in peacetime and the basis for increasing their combat readiness and combat strength to firmly protect the country’s independence, sovereignty, unification, and territorial integrity as well as to readily  respond to non-traditional security challenges. In addition to political education and ideological orientation, they should stringently maintain combat readiness and practise the approved projects. Moreover, they should raise the quality of the party and political work during training missions as an incentive to the fulfilment of the preset goals and targets.

Second, improve the quality of planning, managing, and operating campaign-level, strategic training in sync with combat readiness plans and military-defence tasks. Plans act as a tool for organisation, command, and promotion of the synergy from sectors and forces in the implementation process. In plans, there are specific directions, contents, duration, methods, and measures for sectors and forces’ implementation process in a qualitative and effective manner. Therefore, under higher echelons’ direction and guidance, all-level staff offices should close cooperate with political, logistics and technical agencies at the same level in designing and realising plans in accordance with their situation, particularities, and training requirements. It is important to continue completing mechanisms for directing and operating campaign-level, strategic, and defensive zone-related training and exercises in a focalised, uniformed, synchronous, effective fashion so as to avoid overlapping contents and allocate responsibility for each campaign-level, strategic office. At the same time, it is essential to strictly decentralise training and authority, assign responsibility to all-level offices and commands, and promote coordination between offices and units in directing and operating the training work. In this regard, all-level offices of operations should encourage their role in helping their commanders to manage, develop, and implement training plans, while presiding coordination with other offices and units in realising the training plans under their commanders’ intentions and directives.

Third, continue renewing the contents, programmes, and methods of campaign-level, strategic training and exercises in accordance with new combat conditions. The primary goal of campaign-level, strategic training is to train, cultivate, and improve campaign-level, strategic commands and offices’ capabilities in combat organisation and operation, which will contribute to consolidating and completing combat determination and plans in each strategic area and direction and nationwide as well as supplementing and developing Vietnam’s military theories amidst new task requirements. To that end, the Department of Operations should closely cooperate with competent offices in advising the CMC, the MND, the VPA’s General Staff, local party committees and authorities as well as Central committees, sectors, and ministries on directing agencies, units, and localities to organise campaign-level, strategic training and exercises together with provincial-level and military region-level defensive exercises and on bettering all-level commanders and offices’ capabilities in studying and evaluating the situation and their organisational, commanding and cooperative capacity. At the same time, consideration should be given to inspecting and increasing troops’ combat readiness and campaign-level, strategic offices, ministries, sectors, and localities’ manoeuvrability as well as supplementing and perfecting projects of strategic defensive combat.

Realising the theme “raising the quality and effectiveness of exercises and domestic, regional, international military contests” in 2021, the Department of Operations should closely cooperate with offices in advising the MND on directing its military regions, corps, and services to organise campaign-level, strategic training and exercises, practise combat projects in strategic directions and combat battlefields and environments to defend the country’s territory, border, airspace, seas and islands as well as hold experimental and anti-terrorism rehearsals. It should give instructions to military regions on cooperating with Central committees, sectors and ministries in organising provincial-level defensive zone exercises in accordance with local practical conditions, improving the performance of tasks and functions under committees, ministries and sectors’ mechanisms, enhancing the staff work of military and public security agencies, departments, and sectors, and bettering local party committees and authorities’ leadership and management. Besides, it is essential to complete mechanisms and regulations on promoting the synergy of forces to opportunely, effectively deal with complex issues relating to national defence and security. Emphasis should be placed on establishing mechanisms of leadership, command, and management in new, specific situations, organising experimental exercises, and generalising them into documents so that localities, offices and units could develop projects and make all necessary preparations in peacetime.

Fourth, study and develop the art of campaign-level, strategic combat and strategic defensive combat in accordance with each type of war and combat. With the rapid development of military science and technology, many new forms of war have appeared together with hi-tech weapons. In addition, strategic adjustments, intense competition for influence between major powers, and the complex, unpredictable developments at the East Sea are seriously threatening regional peace and stability and the investment environment. Hence, competent offices should well carry out the work of strategic research, evaluation and forecast, regularly grasp developments in the situation, and opportunely detect plots, artifices, and moves of other countries, particularly major powers and relevant ones to opportunely give advice to the CMC and the MND on organising training to increase the strategic defensive combat capacity. Emphasis should be placed on proposing directions for producing documents on the art of campaign-level combat and the armed forces’ operations in military region-level defensive combat and strategic combat.

In addition to those above-mentioned solutions, the entire VPA should well conduct reviews to draw lessons, opportunely overcome weaknesses, supplement measures to raise the quality of campaign-level, strategic, and defensive zone-related training and exercises, and ensure that all forces across the Military will always be ready for fighting and wining victory in any situation.

Maj. Gen. NGUYEN DUC CAN, Director of the Department of Operations