Brigade 596 of the Signal Corps is a strategic-level signal unit tasked with ensuring communications for the Ministry of National Defence (MND) in leading and commanding units in the Southern region. In recent years, under the Strategy to Develop the Military Communications System for the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2045, together with administrative reform and digital transformation, the Brigade has been presented with many opportunities and favourable conditions, alongside numerous difficulties and challenges. The Brigade has been supplemented with a large amount of new-generation, modern communications equipment; however, it still has to manage and operate a large quantity of old-generation equipment, which lacks synchronisation, with some items degraded and prone to malfunction. Its organisational structure and tasks have been adjusted, with units stationed across many provinces and cities, including border, sea, and island areas. The professional qualifications of some cadres and technical personnel have yet to keep pace with the development of their task requirements. These factors directly affect the Brigade’s task performance. Hence, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused their leadership and direction over all aspects of work; they have made a breakthrough in enhancing the capacity to ensure military communications and firmly maintain “timely, accurate, confidential, safe” communications in all situations.

Gen. Phan Van Giang inspects communications assurance work for the 50th Anniversary of South Liberation and National Unification

First of all, the Brigade has placed special emphasis on political and ideological education, building firm political steadfastness, resolve, and a sense of responsibility among troops for all assigned tasks. The Brigade has directed its offices and units to educate troops on the requirements, advantages, and difficulties relating to communications assurance. While stepping up the study and following of Ho Chi Minh’s thought, morality, and lifestyle, and the Campaign entitled “Promoting tradition, devoting talent, deserving to be Uncle Ho’s Soldiers in the new period” through specific and practical actions, the Brigade has made breakthroughs in renewing and improving political and ideological education. In terms of content, units of the Brigade have enhanced education on the tasks and traditions of the Brigade itself and Signal troops as well as the requirements of ensuring military communications amid the rapid development of information technology and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). Due to the dispersion of its units, the Brigade has directed its units to flexibly apply various forms and methods of education and combine education with dissemination via Zalo groups and QiMe. At the same time, it has effectively carried out all stages and steps of ideological work under the motto of “staying close to troops, understanding troops, trusting troops” in order to proactively grasp, manage, orient, and promptly and thoroughly resolve ideological issues. It has actively provided ideological orientation and fostered positive attitudes, motivations, resilience, and enthusiasm for studying and mastering the operation and maintenance of communications equipment.

To firmly maintain communications systems, the Brigade has focused its leadership over a breakthrough in raising the quality of training and combat readiness linked with regular communications assurance. Grasping and complying with orders, directives, and guidance from the MND and Signal Corps on combat readiness and communications assurance, the Brigade has proactively developed, adjusted, and supplemented its combat readiness documents in line with its particularities. It has practised combat readiness projects, strictly maintaining duty regulations at all levels, focusing on national holidays and political events, ensuring effective handling of all communications situations without being passive or surprised. With scientific organisation and arrangement of duty shifts and time, the Brigade’s duty teams have regularly remained at stations, lines, and equipment, upholding a sense of responsibility and meticulousness, allowing no errors; military postal services have operated on correct routes, with absolute safety in all conditions.

Prior to training, the Brigade has focused on making preparations and especially establishing professional positions; its staff offices have developed scientific training plans closely aligned with the Brigade’s task characteristics and requirements, clearly defining training timeframes and content for each target group. At the same time, it has effectively held refresher courses for its cadres, especially those at grass-roots level, raising the quality of lesson plans and lectures, preparing sufficient training materials and grounds. In the training process, the Brigade has concentrated on training station and duty teams in a synchronised and specialised manner, suitable to their tasks, organisational structure, and existing technical equipment, taking practice as the main method with the aim of mastering modern communications and becoming elite in mobile communications. It has placed emphasis on the transfer of practical experience in operating and repairing communications equipment. It has combined basic programme training with specialised group training, giving updates on achievements in electronics and telecoms relating to technical assurance for communications systems, creating firm professional expertise among its technical staff.

Brigade Command inspects communications assurance work for the 2nd Vietnam - Cambodia Border Defence Friendship Exchange

Furthermore, the Brigade has assigned its technical personnel to take part in communications construction projects and handling of equipment failures in order to enhance their skills. For mobile teams tasked with communications assurance, construction, and television assurance, the Brigade has required its units to make timely, flexible adjustments in training programmes and schedules, organise supplementary training, and ensure 100% of training content and programmes. Communications assurance demands a high level of coordination; therefore, the Brigade has paid special attention to directing joint drills and training between mobile communications equipment within the Brigade itself and with signal forces of units stationed in the Southern region. Thanks to those approaches, on a yearly basis, specialised training is rated good, while the training of mobile signal detachments is rated excellent. To date, the Brigade has built a pool of technical cadres and employees, especially specialised top experts, capable of meeting their task requirements; their capabilities in operating equipment and handling situations have improved considerably; they have installed mobile stations and general stations according to technical requirements, thus enabling rapid establishment of communications.

To maintain the “lifeline” of communications, the Brigade has attached great value to enhancing mastery in managing, maintaining, and repairing equipment, extending service life, and raising utilisation efficiency. Technical staff members have always upheld a proactive, positive, creative spirit in managing and using modern technical equipment and technologies. The Brigade has closely coordinated with telecoms enterprises inside and outside the Military to organise refresher courses for its cadres and employees, thereby enabling them to gradually master advanced equipment and technologies and participate in information operation and processing, infrastructure sharing, maintenance, and repair. It has worked with units of the Signal Corps to effectively exploit the military digital technical network and establish the Army-wide computer network, creating a foundation for command automation at all levels. It has strictly maintained technical work and regulations on preservation, maintenance, sealing, storage, repair, and service-life extension. It has promoted the role of mobile technical teams and the Technical Assurance Centre in remotely resolving technical incidents. In the past five years, it has effectively received, installed, mastered, and preserved communications equipment in line with development requirements. It has opportunely conducted repair of its technical equipment and means and provided timely technical support for units in the Southern region. 100% of communications incidents involving thousands of items of equipment have been handled with good quality. The communications availability rate across all directions and platforms of the Brigade has always been 99.99%; no errors, leaks, delays, or information security breaches have occurred.

Opportunely assisting units in handling communications incidents

Practice shows that the Brigade’s capacity to ensure military communications is determined by the resolute, close leadership and direction of party committees and commands at all levels. Hence, the Brigade has focused its leadership and direction on strictly implementing regulations on managing, operating, and exploiting the military communications system, planning and optimising networks, developing science and technology, and stepping up digital transformation in order to enhance system stability and robustness and build a modern military signal force. For fixed communications, it has replaced equipment on the two backbone routes of 1A and QC with 100Gbps-capacity systems at Stations Q19, A96, and SK26. It has upgraded core-layer equipment, expanded interfaces of edge nodes and developed access nodes for 423 endpoints, planned and converted frequency bands from Vinasat-01 to Vinasat-02 for HUB/A98 stations, converted C band to Ku band for 31 stations in the area. It has installed a softswitch exchange system at General Station A99. It has installed equipment and converted connections for the MND’s online briefing television system, connecting 85 video-conferencing points and integrated voice TSL devices for border units, ensuring high-quality broadcasting for MND conferences, maintaining stable operation of radio and trunking networks with absolute information security. For mobile communications and combat readiness, the Brigade has always successfully ensured communications and television broadcasting for the MND in commanding units tasked with protecting border, sea, and island sovereignty, serving major political events of the Party, State, and Military, and exercises of the MND and southern units. The Brigade has conducted the planning of mobile communications vehicles in an adept, compact, modern, and multi-service manner, establishing and maintaining Level-2 Information Operations Centre, contributing to raising the effectiveness of managing, operating, and exploiting the military communications system in the Southern region.

By synchronously implementing the above solutions, Brigade 596 has successfully fulfilled its functions and political tasks, making practical contributions to enabling the Signal Corps to move straight to modernity, meeting the requirements of Fatherland protection in the new situation.

Sr. Col. NGUYEN HONG VAN

Commander of the Brigade