Chemical defence is a critical aspect of military operations, particularly in the context of modern warfare. The importance of this task is further amplified during strategic airborne assaults by enemy forces, where its execution becomes more complex and challenging, requiring thorough theoretical and practical consideration.

In the event of a war to protect the Fatherland (should it occur), the enemy might conduct strategic airborne assaults from the outset or throughout the conflict, potentially employing weapons of mass destruction. Such scenarios would be highly complicated, necessitating substantial chemical defence measures. However, our chemical defence forces and resources are limited, and these operations must be carried out under conditions of intense enemy attacks, including kinetic and firepower assaults and extensive electronic warfare. This situation demands the resolution of numerous military art issues, the application of combat methods, and the organisation of command and support. Among these, chemical defence is crucial for effectively countering weapons of mass destruction and engaging enemy strategic airborne assaults.

To maximise the strength and effectiveness of chemical defence against strategic airborne assaults in the war, commanders, chief agencies, and chemical units must undertake the following fundamental tasks and solutions:

1. Accurate forecasting and estimation of the enemy’s use of weapons of mass destruction and hazardous chemical or radiological incidents. This task, which is also a paramount solution, ensures that commanders, chemical defence agencies, and units at all levels can make decisive and effective chemical defence measures against strategic airborne assaults. The unpredictability of the enemy’s landing locations and timing, coupled with their strong supporting firepower, especially when employing weapons of mass destruction, results in highly complex and intense combat scenarios. Additionally, strategic airborne assaults may involve one or several campaigns and battles occurring simultaneously or consecutively over vast areas with various tactical forms, leading to urgent and highly dynamic combat situations. Therefore, to ensure timely and effective chemical defence for forces engaging the enemy at advantageous moments, commanders and chemical defence chiefs at all levels must thoroughly study and grasp the battlefield situation, especially the enemy’s capabilities with weapons of mass destruction. This includes predicting the enemy’s objectives, force scale, means, types of weapons of mass destruction, areas, locations, methods, and tactics of use, as well as the potential for hazardous chemical or radiological incidents in the area. This serves as a basis for developing resolute chemical defence plans and implementing unified command and control measures in preparation and execution of defence and countermeasures.

To achieve this, commanders and chemical defence chiefs must flexibly apply various methods to collect, research, and evaluate the enemy’s potential use of weapons of mass destruction. This involves, in addition to assimilating and assessing information from the superiors’ chemical defence directives and notices, organising and deploying a system of observation posts and radiological-chemical reconnaissance stations suitable for the operational area. Concurrently, they must plan to coordinate with intelligence and reconnaissance forces, staff agencies at all levels, and local civilians to accurately identify the phenomena, timing, means, and tactics of the enemy’s use of weapons of mass destruction. On this basis, they can accurately forecast the enemy’s potential use of weapons of mass destruction, determine the tasks and capabilities for chemical defence against strategic airborne assaults, and propose scientifically and appropriately chemical defence measures and solutions for hazardous chemical and radiological incidents in the area.

Chemical troops decontaminate vehicle (Photo: baoquankhu7.vn)

2. Close coordination of chemical defence forces and means in key operational directions (areas), campaigns, battles, and critical opportunities. This principle is fundamental in the art of chemical warfare, aiming to leverage the combined strength of various forces and enhance the efficiency and capability of chemical defence for troops at crucial moments and decisive opportunities. Typically, during strategic airborne assaults, the enemy will deploy large-scale forces (ranging from several brigades to divisions or more), with superior forces and means, flexible timing, landing areas, and proactive use of weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, to accomplish the mission of chemical defence, it is essential to fully exploit the combined strength of people’s war, closely integrating chemical forces and means across all three military branches, and establishing a robust and widespread chemical defence posture in each area. The core elements should be the strategic and operational-level chemical forces, supported by chemical defence forces in defensive zones, militia chemical defence units, and other forces. This should be combined with local and mobile defence, modern and rudimentary, self-improvised chemical defence equipment and means. Particularly, to resolve the conflict between needs and capabilities of support, commanders must be perceptive and flexible, balancing between concentration and dispersion, mobility and local defence, based on the principle of concentrating appropriate chemical defence for units performing key combat missions, in key operational directions (areas), pivotal campaigns, and battles, and crucial opportunities to counter strategic airborne assaults.

During the execution of this task, it is necessary to proactively and synchronously implement various support measures, such as deploying forces, preparing decontamination sites along main routes, pre-positioning decontamination agents near these sites to promptly decontaminate and sanitise heavily contaminated and irradiated units, organising mobile forces ready to decontaminate affected units, actively coordinating with other forces and civilians to mitigate the consequences of chemical and radiological incidents in the area, thereby minimising damage caused by the enemy’s weapons of mass destruction and maintaining the combat effectiveness of forces countering strategic airborne assaults.

3. Proactive and creative use of smoke screens and deception, alongside emphasising the destructive power of special weapons. In the context of strategic airborne assaults, the deployment of smoke screens for camouflage and deception is a crucial task for chemical defence. This measure aims to impair the enemy’s visual observation and optical, infrared, and other sensory equipment, reduce the accuracy of high-tech weaponry, and conceal the movements, forces, and actions of friendly troops. To achieve the desired objectives, commanders and chemical defence chiefs must adhere to the established combat resolution and relevant factors, developing a scientifically grounded and highly feasible chemical defence plan that ensures a tight integration of defensive and offensive actions. For effective implementation, chemical defence agencies and chiefs must coordinate closely with units designated for camouflage and deception and local armed forces. This includes combining the use of camouflage smoke screens with deceptive smoke screens and creating fake artillery and missile positions, dummy activities, and other deceptive operations to confuse the enemy, making the “fake” appear “real.” This strategy forces the enemy to misjudge, exposing vulnerabilities and compelling them to engage on our terms while ensuring that our real targets and intentions remain concealed.

In addition to using smoke screens, chemical defence forces should focus on collaborating with other forces to deploy special weapons aimed at eliminating key targets such as infantry-tank concentrations, firepower clusters, landing aircraft, and enemy command posts. However, special chemical weapons typically have a short effective range and are prone to detection and neutralisation by enemy reconnaissance upon firing. Therefore, to enhance their effectiveness, commanders and chemical defence units must leverage the advantages of terrain and pre-built fortifications for deploying special weapons, prioritising units on key operational fronts, pivotal campaigns, and decisive battles. Additionally, measures must be in place to maintain secrecy, ensure safety, and use these weapons at the right moment to fully exploit their strengths.

4. Ensuring technical chemical defence for forces countering strategic airborne assaults. In strategic operations, particularly in countering strategic airborne assaults, operations usually take place over a wide area and extended period, involving numerous tasks and rapid, intense scenarios of enemy attacks using weapons of mass destruction. Forces are often engaged in prior combat phases, facing enemy ground assaults, flanking maneuvers, and strategic airborne assaults simultaneously. This leads to significant material and equipment consumption and a substantial need for chemical defence support. Chemical defence operations are inherently linked to chemical defence equipment, operating in hazardous environments with specialised, diverse technical equipment that must be provided correctly, adequately, and synchronously. To meet the demands of chemical defence for forces countering the enemy, commanders and chemical defence chiefs must develop thorough and timely plans for chemical technical equipment in all situations, particularly for forces on key operational fronts, critical campaigns, and decisive battles. This requires close coordination with engineering forces to install collective chemical defence equipment for command posts, surgical bunkers, etc. Units should construct chemical defence bunkers, covered trenches in the combat fortification system, and organise storage systems, stations, and areas for chemical technical materials and equipment appropriately. Coordinating various transportation means is crucial to ensure continuous, rapid, and timely mobility of chemical technical equipment. Adequate preparation of chemical technical equipment, along with reserves and supplementary resources, is necessary to handle combat scenarios in strategic airborne assaults. Additionally, chemical defence units should actively exploit and use captured enemy weapons to combat them and gather evidence of enemy use of weapons of mass destruction for diplomatic purposes, thereby leveraging national and international strengths.

Ensuring chemical defence against strategic airborne assaults in the war of Fatherland protection is a formidable task, fraught with complexities and challenges. Therefore, it requires ongoing thorough research, aligned with modern combat requirements and the development of the people’s war for Homeland defence in the new context.

Senior Colonel, Dr. VU VAN NAM, Principal of the Chemical Defence College