As a mobile, raiding, specialised unit of Military Region 2, in recent years, Tank and Armoured Brigade 406 has received investment from higher echelons for a comprehensive upgrade in terms of personnel, infrastructure, and weaponry - favourable conditions for the Brigade to improve its synergy and combat power.

However, when performing its tasks, the Brigade has encountered numerous difficulties and challenges; there have been many changes in its contingent of officers and professional employees; it has a large quantity of weapons and equipment under management and use, many of which have been used for years and are deteriorating; support work has yet to fully meet its mission requirements. To fulfil its responsibilities and truly deserve its role as a “powerful raiding force” of the Military Region, the Brigade has been promoting its “three breakthroughs”.

An inspection by Military Region 2 Command at the Brigade

1. Streamlining organisational structure and building a politically strong unit

Following higher echelons’ resolutions and directives, particularly Resolution 04-NQ/ĐU, dated 16 May 2022, by the Military Region Party Committee on leadership over the organisational structure of the Military Region’s armed forces for the period of 2021 - 2030 and beyond, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have issued a specialised resolution together with a system of scientifically designed action plans and programs for this important task. Accordingly, force adjustments have been seriously, resolutely carried out by the Brigade in accordance with higher-level direction and its particularities; priority has been given to ensuring sufficient personnel strength and equipment for affiliates tasked with training and combat readiness; logistics and technical agencies have been merged with each other under the prescribed road map.

Alongside force adjustments, due attention has been paid to building a politically strong Brigade as the key to raising its synergy and combat power. The Brigade Party Committee has taken numerous measures to enhance the leadership capacity and combativeness of party committees and party cells, making breakthroughs in building “Four-Good, Four-No Party Cells and Party Organisations”¹, attaching importance to improving the leadership, direction, and management capacity, dynamism, creativity, and exemplary role of cadres and party members, especially all-level key leaders. Besides, it has renewed the content of its resolutions in a concise manner, clearly defining targets, measures, and outcomes, making those resolutions easy to be realised, inspected, and evaluated, exercising its leadership comprehensively but focusing on key tasks in each phase, linking task performance with responsibilities of each party committee member and unit head. Training and refresher courses have been intensified to enhance leadership and management capacity of secretaries, party committee members, and political cadres.

At the same time, the Brigade has strongly renewed the content, forms, and methods of political education, closely combining regular education with specialised and tasks-based education. Emphasis has been placed on rendering troops fully aware of the Party’s viewpoints and lines on military and defence tasks, traditions of the Military Region and the Brigade, clarifying plots and tactics of hostile forces. Ideological management has been strengthened in line with the motto of “staying close to troops, understanding troops, believing in troops”. Consideration has been given to proactively grasping and orienting public opinion, promptly resolving concerns, and motivating troops to improve themselves. Thanks to these synchronised measures, troops of the Brigade have always maintained political steadfastness and been ready to undertake all assigned tasks. During the 2020 - 2025 term, all party committees and party organisations fulfilled their tasks or better; 97.7% of party members successfully or excellently accomplished their tasks. This is an important prerequisite for the Brigade to enhance its synergy and combat power.

2. Good training and high combat readiness

Training and combat readiness constitute a routine, central political task that directly improves the synergy and combat power of a unit. Thoroughly grasping and implementing resolutions, directives, and guidance from higher echelons on training and combat readiness, particularly Resolution 05-NQ/ĐU, dated 21 March 2023, by the Military Region Party Committee on “Raising the quality of training in the period of 2023 - 2030 and beyond”, the Brigade’s Party Committee and Command have focused on training troops to attain technical and tactical proficiency, creative and decisive thinking, and mastery over the existing weapons and equipment. As for commanders and agencies, the Brigade has incorporated new lessons drawn from recent military conflicts relating to the tank and armoured force into training, intensifying training in methods of organising training courses and exercises, improving command and operational staff capabilities. For grass-roots units, training has been organised in a comprehensive but focalised fashion, closely aligned with missions and target groups; special attention has been paid to training professional servicemen and technical employees according to situations, improving their ability to maximise the technical and operational features of weapons, equipment, and technical means in all terrain and weather conditions, and imparting experiences in handling malfunctions and incidents frequently arising during combat manoeuvres.

Training via simulation systems

To realise its set objectives, the Brigade has carefully prepared training records, lesson plans, and training materials, constructing a system of training grounds in a multi-purpose, modern, solid manner, stepping up the movement on fostering technical innovations and initiatives, applying information technology in training. In the training process, the Brigade has adhered to the motto of “basics, practicality, solidity”, focusing on the basics from the outset, increasing the use of teaching aids, standard movements, model teams, sample clips, practising on simulation systems before training on actual equipment. Training and refresher courses on new, weak, or inconsistent issues have been intensified for cadres. The Brigade has also paid close attention to training and refresher courses on practical, speciality-related issues for its young cadres and professional servicemen, promptly transferring experience, and improving their proficiency in exploiting and using weapons and equipment so that this contingent would become effective “assistant instructors” in the training of its grass-roots units.

Furthermore, the Brigade has increased contests at grass-roots level, actively participating in contests held by higher echelons, requiring its cadres to promote inspection and supervision of training grounds and classes, promptly drawing lessons, rectifying shortcomings in training. Besides, it has organised a large number of exercises, especially all-level combat drills, and taken part in exercises within the Military Region’s formation. It has regularly renewed its exercises with scenarios relating to its missions and operational plans; its exercises have been held over new terrains and in a short period of preparation to bring troops closer to combat reality and hone command capability and coordination among its grass-roots units and between tanks and ground forces. As a result, the Brigade’s training and exercise outcomes have continuously improved. On a yearly basis, 100% of training subjects meet the requirements, over 85% of them are rated good or excellent; all training subjects relating to tanks and armoured vehicles, such as live fire and driving, are rated excellent. For many consecutive years, the Brigade has been awarded the flag of “Excellent Training Unit”; in the “Excellent Tank Crew” competition of 2021 and the “Excellent Tank Platoon” competition of 2024, it achieved second prize at Army-wide level; in the excellent regiment (brigade) deputy commander - chief of staff and deputy political commissar competition at Military Region level in 2023, it won first prize individually and second prize collectively.

Also, the Brigade has strictly maintained combat readiness routines, regularly reviewing, supplementing, perfecting, and practising the system of combat documents/projects in line with its practical conditions. It has worked with localities to review, arrange, and closely manage reservists and technical means for mobilisation upon orders. Its search and rescue sub-units have been regularly consolidated, fully provided with equipment, and thoroughly trained according to projects to ensure their successful task performance in any situations. The quality of regularity building, discipline management, and safety assurance has also been enhanced.

3. Providing adequate, timely logistics and technical support, maintaining readiness to manoeuvre in all situations

As a technical specialised unit and a strong mobile, raiding force of the Military Region, the Brigade has placed special emphasis on improving the quality of logistics and technical work, considering this an important breakthrough to ensure that “once an order is issued, manoeuvre can be carried out immediately”. Following directives and guidance by the Military Region and the Tank and Armoured Corps, adhering to its practical conditions, apart from reorganising its logistics - technical agencies in a balanced and synchronised manner, the Brigade has regularly reviewed and adjusted the system of regular and combat readiness logistics - technical documents, and sufficiently stockpiled materials and equipment according to various projects. It has proactively given advice on upgrading station and workshop equipment, building a strong mobile support force, strengthening training to improve its technical staff’s skills in carrying out minor and medium repairs on equipment in service. The “Technical Work Day” has been strictly maintained, along with regulations on preservation, maintenance, sealing, storage, synchronisation, and repair. At the same time, the Brigade has stepped up the Campaign on “Managing and exploiting weapons and technical equipment effectively, sustainably, safely, economically and ensuring traffic safety”. As a result, the stability, synchronicity, and technical coefficients of its weapons and equipment have always met or exceeded the targets; it has maintained a coefficient of Kt = 1 for its combat-ready weaponry, while Kt = 0.95 has been sustained for its training materiel. In addition, it has provided adequate logistics support for all tasks, ensuring its troops’ living standards and fitness, upgrading its barracks, creating the best conditions for its cadres and soldiers to keep their mind on their work.

Thanks to its great political resolve and scientific solutions to realise the “three breakthroughs”, the Brigade has witnessed all-round and firm improvements in its synergy and combat power, which has provided many valuable lessons and laid a solid foundation for the Brigade to successfully accomplish its assigned tasks and bolster its tradition of “Loyalty, solidarity, discipline, determination to win” in the new period.

Sr. Col. VU NGOC HUNG

Commander of the Brigade

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1- Four-Good: good leadership over political tasks, good quality of meetings and work regimes, good unity and discipline management, good quality of cadres and party members. Four-No: no involvement in social evils, no violations of traffic safety regulations, no use of party membership cards or documents issued by the State or the Military as collateral for loans or debts beyond repayment capacity, no degeneration in political ideology, organisational principles of party activities, or revolutionary ethics.