Military coup

Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang attended and spoke at the event. The ceremony also saw the presence of Deputy Defense Ministers and Deputy Chiefs of the General Staff.

During the training, participating officers will be equipped with line-up regulations and methods for conducting night training, a grenade-throwing contest, and regiment-level exercises.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, General Giang recalled that over the past years, the whole military thoroughly embraced and strictly carried out the Central Military Commission’s Resolution 765 and Decision 60 on raising training quality in the 2013-2020 period and subsequent years. Particularly, agencies and units actively renewed methods of training and conducted sport competitions and exercises to augment troops’ capabilities to meet new task requirements.

Giang also requested the General Staff to equip participating officers with basic contents of staff work and training methods, contributing to addressing shortcomings in conducting military training. Together with carrying out the set program, organizers should pay attention to ensuring absolute safety for participants and equipment and strictly observe training regulations.

He asked trainers to devise suitable training methods to effectively convey training contents to participating officers and hoped that trainees will learn more about skills and effectively apply them to their units’ training  in the future.

Translated by Tran Hoai

Secretary of the Da Nang city Party’s Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh (C) handing over the title to the two former military personnel

PANO – The Party Organization and the People’s Committee of Da Nang City on November 24th announced the State President’s decision to confer the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces on former military personnel Nguyen Thanh Thuy and Le Trung Nuoi, in recognition of their great contributions to the nation.

Born in 1930, comrade Nguyen Thanh Thuy is a Yen Ne villager of Hoa Tien commune, Hoa Vang district. He used to be the commissar of Commando Company H29 of the Quang Nam-Da Nang provincial army section. Over more than 30 years of the struggle for national salvation, he achieved many feats of arms and received many noble orders, including the third-class Military Feat Order, the first-class Anti-American Resistance War Order. He was also titled Valiant Man for fighting against American imperialists and destroying motorized vehicles.

As a native of Cam Toai village, Hoa Phong commune, Hoa Vang district, 65-year-old comrade Le Trung Nuoi is the former head of Commando Platoon of Company 84 of Hoa Vang district armed forces. He was a local guerilla at the age of 15. In different units, he always tried his best to accomplish his assigned tasks. Specially, at dawn on May 12th 1969, he directly fired two Hawks, the medium-range surface-to-air guided missile, at a fuel depot, and killed 20 enemies on Phuoc Tuong Mountain.

Translated by Ha Thanh

The command is entrusted with managing and defending the southwestern waters from Ganh Hao estuary (in Bac Lieu province) to Ha Tien (Kien Giang province). Covering the area of 150,000 sq.km, these waters border the waters of Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. It has a nearly 450 km of coastline, numerous estuaries, and 153 large and small islands, of which 46 are inhabited.

Besides advantages in task performance, the command has also faced many challenges. In fact, in these designated waters, there remains 16,000 sq.km of overlapping waters between Vietnam and Cambodia, 650 sq.km of overlapping waters among Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, and some 2,800 sq.km of overlapping waters between Vietnam and Malaysia. The sovereignty over these overlapping waters has not been clearly defined, so it is difficult to manage.

Therefore, to maintain peace and stability in the waters, the Naval Region 5 Command has strengthened its ties with the naval forces of regional countries, including the Royal Cambodian Navy and the Royal Thai Navy.

According to Lieutenant Commander Nguyen Trung Thong, Commissar of Flotilla 512 and Senior Lieutenant Pham Van Thuy, Captain of Ship 264 of Brigade 127, the command has conducted joint patrols with regional navies, considering each patrol an intensive training opportunity. During the patrols, participating troops practiced preventing acts of piracy, smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and arms- and explosive-trafficking. They also exercised using hand flags and signal lamps in line with the international code of signals.

So far, the Naval Region 5 Command has completed 62 joint patrols with the Royal Cambodia Navy and 42 others with the Royal Thai Navy. It has also maintained a hotline with Regions 1 and 2 of the Royal Thai Navy and naval bases under the Royal Cambodian Navy to exchange information and discuss measures to solve situations occurring in their countries’ adjacent waters. These activities have made important contributions to consolidating solidarity and friendship between their militaries and navies and to upholding a peaceful and stable environment at sea, creating favorable conditions for socio-economic development in each country.

In the years to come, apart from stability in the southwestern waters, there are still potential risks that might cause instability, including illegal fishing in foreign waters. Thus, the Party Committee and Chain-of-command of the Naval Region 5 Command has defined that they will bring into full play what they had achieved, bolster defense diplomacy, including more joint patrols with the Royal Thai and Cambodian navies in order to firmly defend national sovereignty over seas and islands, and maintain order, security, peace, stability, and development in the southwestern waters of the nation.

Translated by Mai Huong

member of the Party Central Committee, permanent member of the Central Military Commission and Deputy Defense Minister, during the inspection of the academy’s task implementation in the first six months of this year conducted on June 15.

Having visited the academy, the Deputy Defense Minister praised its achievements in the first six months of 2017. Accordingly, the academy flexibly adjusted its training programs, built exercise scenarios in line with reality, successfully organized a command exercise for seniors, and comprehensively implemented Party and political work.

During the inspection, General Don also asked the academy to continue renewing training methods and contents with the focus on enriching cadets’ specialized and practical knowledge through field trips and exercises and raising the quality of instructors.

Agreeing on a logical plan for the upgrading and construction of lecture halls and accommodation to meet the long-term demand for officers, he said, in short-term, the academy should prioritize the repairing and upgrading of the downgraded facilities and the construction of essential projects to meet the officers’ daily and study demands.

Translated by Tran Hoai

At the event, participants were briefed on the cooperation of the three border guard units over the past time, particularly in border patrols and mass mobilization.

Their border posts accelerated joint efforts in safeguarding national sovereignty, and maintaining border security and social safety in the stationed areas.

At the meeting, delegates discussed relevant matters and agreed on several measures to enhance their cooperation in the time to come, especially in external defense affairs, border management, information sharing, and mass mobilization.

On the occasion, representatives of the three border guard units signed the cooperation program for 2021, contributing to firmly protecting the national border in the current context.

Translated by Trung Thanh

The ship at the launching ceremony

PANO – Factory X51 of the Ba Son Corporation under the General Department of Defence Industry successfully launched the first ship for patrol and search and rescue (SAR) missions, numbered FC624-01, in Ho Chi Minh City on June 16th.

The 63.1m long and 11.9m wide “FC624-01” has a displacement of 700 tons and a maximum speed of 25 knots per hour in bad weather with the wind force at the eighth to ninth scale and high waves.

While carrying out the SAR mission, the ship, which is specifically designed to operate continuously for 15 days and nights, can rescue 100-120 distressed people.

Once operational, the ship will help better safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, support fishermen and fight fire at sea, as well as be able to join international SAR tasks on request.

Translated by Van Hieu