The “Safe environment” competition of the Army Games 2020 will take place in this city.
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The training board of the Vietnamese chemical team and Russian experts talk about the competition requirements at the training grounds |
Under the organizing panel’s plan, participating teams will visit the training grounds, study the official competition rules, task requirements, and receive weapons, vehicles and other equipment for the competition. During the visit, representatives from the organizers will give detailed task requirements at each stage of the contest and answer any questions related to the rules of competition.
In this year’s regulations of the “Safe environment” contest, participating teams will drive BTR-80, a Russian-made armored personnel carrier. This kind of vehicle has not yet been armed to the Vietnam People’s Army. Therefore, back home, the Vietnamese chemical team practiced with BTR-60PB whose techno-tactical features and size are quite similar to BTR-80.
The organizers of this year’s games have also installed different signs and 40cm high barriers on the tracks to challenge the crews’ abilities to steer and drive the nearly 14 ton vehicles to complete all contents of the contest in the shortest period of time.
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Participating teams learn technical features and combat functions of BTR-80 |
According to non-commissioned First Lieutenant Do Ngoc Kien, a member of the Vietnamese chemical team with many years of experience in driving BTR-60PB, observing a BTR-80 for the first time, he found out that many parts of this vehicle are different from those of BTR-60PB. Therefore, the team members need time to learn more about and get used to it before they can operate it well. “In the coming days, I and two other drivers of the chemical team will have to quickly master this vehicle,” Kien said.
In the shooting event, the host country has developed a new contest using the world’s IPSC-standard targets. Gunners will be required to move fast, shoot targets in uncomfortable positions and from different distances, and annihilate all targets in the shortest time.
This year’s shooting event is more difficult than that of last year because targets are arranged in different angles and out of order, requiring gunners to move on exact routes and memorize all targets.
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Senior Colonel Ngo Van Dinh, Head of the Vietnamese chemical team draw lots to take a BTR-80 |
Apart from the normal targets, the organizers have also arranged “hostages” standing close to or hiding parts of the targets. With any “hostages” hit, the gunner will get minus points. In addition, each member of a team has to perform a different shooting exercise based on the result of a draw. There are “Alarm”, “Ambush”, and “Offensive Reconnaissance” exercises with different requirements. Points will be calculated by the time spent by a sportsman to complete the exercise and their points will be added to their team’s aggregate points.
Coaches and crew-members of the Vietnamese chemical team are taking most of their time to get used to the official training grounds and study the regulations of the contest.
After the visit to the training grounds, the chemical team found differences between the training grounds in Russia and Vietnam and devised training plans before the official competition.
As scheduled, in the coming days, the Russian side will guide participating teams on how to use competition-used weapons and vehicles.
Reported by Pham Kien from Russia
Translated by Mai Huong