Manoeuvre communication assurance is one of the central political tasks of Signal Brigade 604 (Military Region 2) to serve the Military Region's Command and the Ministry of Defence in leading, commanding, and directing agencies, units, and localities to perform military and defence tasks, disaster and incident response, search and rescue, etc. Being aware of the assigned responsibilities, despite of the difficulties due to the large area of assurance, complex terrain, harsh weather conditions..., the Brigade Party Committee and commanders, under the motto of “Being ready to manoeuvre in all situations and manoeuvring to successfully complete the task”, have been proactive and creative in synchronously and drastically implementing solutions to promote synergy and be ready to assure manoeuvre communication in all situations.

Firstly, the Brigade has regularly attached importance to political and ideological education and building of determination for the manoeuvre communication force.  Stemming from the requirements for protecting of the Fatherland, manoeuvre communication detachments must regularly operate independently and away from leadership and command and move in complicated terrain and weather conditions with high risk of floods and landslides... that has significant impacts on the soldiers as well as the ability to complete the tasks of the Unit. Therefore, promoting political and ideological education and building of determination for cadres and soldiers in the performance of tasks is the most important issue. To do that, the Brigade has focused on communicating tasks, directives, resolutions, and orders of the superiors, particularly the Military Region’s Party Committee and Command, for the soldiers to master the position and role of the manoeuvre communication assurance force - an important component and a “link” between the military and civilian communication systems, to serve the leaders of the Military Region Command and agencies to  promptly direct localities and units upon incidents. At the same time, it has specified the difficulties in the process of performing the task, as well as the requirements for building a modern signal force... to build cadres and soldiers with strong political bravery and high determination. In addition, the Brigade has strengthened the management and discipline training, implemented the Grassroots Democracy Regulations, and paid attention to and promptly handled policy, army rear, family issues to motivate cadres and soldiers to feel secure in their work and adhere to the units. Currently, the Brigade focuses on grasping and implementing Conclusion No.21-KL/TW issued on October 25^th, 2021 by the Central Party Committee (the 13^th Tenure) on promoting the building and rectification of the Party and the political system to resolutely preventing, repelling, and strictly handling cadres and Party members who have deteriorated in political ideology,  morality, and lifestyle and magnifications of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” and Resolution No.847-NQ/QUTW issued on December 28^th, 2021 by the Central Military Party Commission on promoting the quality of “Uncle Ho’s Soldiers” to resolutely fight against individualism in the new situation and create strong changes in each agency and unit.

Along with that, the Brigade has focused on strengthening the organisation and force and strictly maintaining combat readiness, that have always considered as the core contents to serve a basis for the Brigade to firmly grasp the situation in all aspects early and from afar. Thoroughly grasping and strictly complying with the superiors’ orders, directives, and guidelines on communication assurance for combat readiness, every month, the Brigade has directed agencies and units to  review, adjust, and consolidate their organisation staffing in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Defence and the Military Region with  priority given to ensuring sufficient numbers of troops for units on duties of  combat readiness and manoeuvre communication, remote radios and stations, and key positions.  Notably, since 2017, the implementation of the Brigade's tasks of manoeuvre communication assurance for disaster response has shown that to deploy forces in difficult mountainous terrain, divided traffic, or narrow deployment ground, the organisation of compact manoeuvre communication squads and teams is very necessary and appropriate. Therefore, to promptly meet the requirements of tasks, the Brigade has proactively proposed and consolidated manoeuvre communication detachments towards being “elite and versatile” to make it convenient for both organising the communication system and supplementing tasks to adapt all situations. At the same time, it has strictly maintained the regimes command duty, guard duty, and communication duty and strengthened communication shifts at all levels, focusing on key areas (mountainous provinces or divided areas), peak combat readiness duty time (holidays, or Tet), and important events of the country and Army.

By regularly grasping the situation of the area in charge, especially the manoeuvre routes and force deploying grounds, the Brigade has focused on reviewing and adjusting documents and plans and supplementing plans to be close to the actual situation, especially plans for coordination and cooperation with the signal forces of the Ministry and local telecommunications enterprises to connect and integrate manoeuvre communication networks into the Brigade’s communication system and organising practice closely and seriously at all levels based on the plans. The Brigade has also actively grasped and forecasted tasks, especially the manoeuvre communication assurance to serve the superiors’ commanding and direction of disaster prevention and search and rescue and maintained manoeuvre communication forces in regular, auxiliary, field, and reserved headquarters with backup equipment and troops as prescribed.

Practising deploying mobile communications

Currently, to meet the requirements and tasks, manoeuvre communication assurance requires high specialisation. Specially, when using mobile television, it requires close and smooth coordination among positions in the radio station and platoon. Moreover, the situation is always fast-moving, complex, and unexpected. In that text, the Brigade has paid attention to leading and directing the breakthroughs to improve the quality of manoeuvre television communication assurance training towards being “elite and versatile”.  Thoroughly grasping the Party's defence and military viewpoints and resolutions and directives of the Central Military Party Commission and the Ministry of Defence on training, particularly Conclusion No.60-KL/TW issued on January 18^th, 2019 by the Central Military Party Commission on continuing to implement Resolution No.765-NQ/QUTW on improving the training quality of the 2013-2020 period and beyond, the Brigade has actively done a good job of preparing from developing training plans and programs, training staff, drafting lesson plans, organising lesson plan approval, and fostering cadres to preparing facilities, training fields and grounds, etc. particularly, prioritising cadre training and fostering and focusing on technical staff. Accordingly, regarding the cadres, the Brigade has focused on training to improve the capacity of commanding and managing manoeuvre communication assurance and coordination of the forces; firmly grasping and handling situations; and flexibly arranging forces and means according to each situation. Regarding technical staff, importance has been attached to training in exploiting and proficiently using assigned facilities with the requirement to fully promote their technical and tactical features and ensuring smooth and solid communication. For manoeuvre communication detachments, it has enhanced practical training in relation to communication network connection and recovery and deployment of radios, stations, and general stations under the complex night, terrain, and weather conditions and organised additional training of vehicle crews and drivers on experience in handling situations when marching long distances, in steep terrain and limited lighting, using undercarriage lights; training reconnaissance squads on “wave testing” to determine the ground and plan for deploying field headquarters, etc.

To adapt to the rapid change in technology and the development of facilities and equipment for manoeuvre communication assurance and mobile television, the Brigade has actively prepared human resources and materials to effectively participate in training and technology transfer programs under the superiors’ plans; create conditions for cadres and staff to study at academies and schools inside and outside the Army; build a contingent of highly qualified staff to access new technologies; and establish groups of specialised trainer to serve as the core to train and foster staff and teachers in each major.

Implementing the motto of being “ready to manoeuvre in all situations”, the Brigade has attached great importance doing a good job of logistics and technical assurance. Accordingly, agencies and units have regularly maintained strictly the technical work regime to ensure the sufficient quantity and quality of facilities and equipment for the task of manoeuvre communication assurance and developed plans to ensure the provision of communication facilities and information equipment to be ready for replacement and supplementation upon incidents. To quickly and promptly fix problems and failures, the Brigade has prioritised the organisation of mobile repair groups with a reasonable amount of spare materials to be ready to maneuver and repair in all situations. Along with that, the Brigade has prepared multiple options to ensure logistics for detachments performing tasks in areas affected or separated by natural disasters and; focused plans for kitchen separation and provision of dry and canned food; and well implement the motto of “four in-places” to actively coordinate and cooperate with other units and local authorities in mobilising maximum resources, means, and facilities to ensure adequate and timely logistics for forces performing tasks in remote and isolated, and especially difficult area to  ensure the maintenance of communication in all situations.

Thanks to drastic and synchronous solutions, for many years, communication on the Brigade's media has always been smooth, and the rate of good shifts of radio communication command has always been from 99.7% to 100% without missing data and signals and backlog of telegrams. The manoeuvre communication assurance has always been smooth and solid. Particularly, in 2018, the Brigade successfully completed the task of manoeuvre communication assurance for the Military Region to command and direct the disaster recovery operations in Yen Bai and Lai Chau provinces. In 2021, it excellently fulfiled the task of deployment and assurance of communication and mobile television for the TB-21 Drill, which was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Minister of Defence.

Promoting the experience and achievements, in the coming time, Signal Brigade 604 will continue to concretise the goal of “being good at traditional communication, mastering new technologies and modern equipment, grasping specialised techniques and tactics, having good health”, and gradually introducing the criteria of “elite” manoeuvre communication detachments and general training for vehicles and  manoeuvre communication stations to implement to contribute to improving the comprehensive level of cadres and soldiers and strive to bring the deployment the Brigade’ manoeuvre communication assurance to an elite and modern level to meet the requirements and tasks in all situations.

Senior Colonel VU HAI DUONG, Brigade Commander