At this time, Viettel has an affiliate named Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company that specializes in researching and developing hi-tech products.
Starting from zero
In 2008, four young Viettel engineers named Nguyen Vu Ha (now the Director of Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company), Nguyen Manh Linh, Nguyen Thai Binh and Dang Huu Tung, were selected by Viettel leaders to research and develop communication machinery for the military. This task was completely new to them so they did not know where they should start from. Even though they all had participated in designing and/or making electronic devices and some of them had even worked for foreign companies before, it was still a worrisome time.
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Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company's engineers |
But when they joined Viettel and were tasked to produce a hi-tech communication system for the military, they had no ideas on how to start a military communication system. Later their leaders gave them some old-style U.S. and former Soviet Union-made signal systems for reference.
The team quickly opened the old signal systems and carefully studied their structures, features, working regimes and functions. They also asked the group’s leaders to participate in international workshops and symposiums on communication technology and machinery.
During the first two years, they worked hard day and night. In 2010, the four engineers successfully made two communication systems, each of which weighed 12kg and had a frequency hopping rate of 100 times per second.
Recognizing the initial success, leaders of Viettel reinforced personnel to the team. From the first four engineers, the team now had 12 engineers. In order to facilitate the work of the team, Viettel bought a modern communication system from a foreign country.
After the team received the modern communication system, leaders of the Ministry of National Defense and Viettel ordered the engineers to produce a pattern of a communication system in six months’ time, and a complete communication system with its technical features and functions as modern as the foreign-made one in one year’s time.
Recalling that time, Nguyen Manh Linh said, “All of us felt a lot of pressure. Everyday the team had to report their work to Viettel’s leaders, who then reported it to the Ministry of National Defense. During urgent phases, the engineers lived and worked in the workshop and stayed overnight to work.”
After only six months, the team successfully produced a communication system that had working functions equivalent or even superior to the foreign-made one. In 2011, Viettel established a Research and Development Institute, the predecessor to the current Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company. At the same time, the group invested in SDA platforms, which are used to manufacture modern communication systems, meeting the needs of different customers.
Viettel-made communication systems are increasingly modern and can compare with their peers, which are used by NATO militaries. Viettel-made transmitters and receivers can work well when they are placed apart in a distance of up to 2,000km. Viettel’s communication systems can be installed in military vehicles like armored cars and tanks. The group also manufactures portable communication systems that can be equipped to individual soldiers. Furthermore, Viettel-made communications are suitable for the hot-and-humid climate of Vietnam.
Apart from their superior working functions, Viettel-made communication systems are more secure as they have a frequency hopping rate of 500 times per second in comparison with only around 250 times per second of foreign-made ones. What is more, Viettel-made communication systems have a function that allows the user to delete all data from afar so they may be neutralized if they fall into the adversary’s hands.
Youthfulness and creativity
A nine-year-old person is still immature but Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company with energetic and creative experts, engineers and workers has done a lot of things over the past nine years. The staff of the company has matured after every project they have finished.
One of many things that is special at the company is that most of its engineers and workers are still young. It is likely that the energy, creativity and scientific aspirations of the young people have made miraculous things over the past years.
So far, the company’s engineers and workers have successfully registered 21 patents in Vietnam and one in the U.S., not to mention hundreds of scientific articles published in prestigious foreign-based journals.
According to an expert, the company’s telecommunication technology is equivalent to the world’s most advanced telecommunication technology used for military purposes. The company now has an army of talented experts and engineers, who are capable of researching and developing hi-tech communication systems for military purposes.
“When a new military communication system is introduced in the world, we study its technical parameters and working functions. After a while, we can know the technology of manufacturing the system,” Captain Dang Huu Tung affirmed.
New-generation communication systems made by young engineers and workers of Viettel Hi-Tech Technology Company have a number of preeminent features, such as a way-finding function, network-establishing function, high-speed SMS, and real-time image transmission. These features help the commander of a combat unit know the overall picture and details of the combat space so as to give correct orders to the entire unit as well as to his individual combatants.
Since 2008 when Viettel decided to invest in the hi-tech products R&D, the group has now been able to manufacture a number of modern communication systems for military purposes. Several of the group-made communication systems have received much attention and purchase orders from international partners.
“Our current successes result from the leadership’s excellent vision and our efforts over the past 10 years. Without the group’s investment in research and development of hi-tech products, our military would have spent a lot of money on military communication systems, and Vietnam’s defense industry could not have developed,” Captain Nguyen Manh Linh proudly said.
With its success in advanced communication systems, Viettel is now investing in the R&D of other sophisticated military platforms and equipment facilitating various operations of the military in the current context, contributing to the building of a revolutionary, regular, elite and gradually modernized army.
Translated by Thu Nguyen