Major General Kieu Dang Hung, Commanding General of Corps 18, General Director of the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation granted an interview to reporter of the People’s Army Newspaper.
According to the general, the corps is tasked with many missions. Regarding defense and military work, the corps has to ensure combat readiness, conduct commercial flights together with observation flights, contributing to affirming the national sovereignty over sea and islands, and border areas, as well as serving the Party, State, and defense leaders, among others.
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Major General Kieu Dang Hung |
Mentioning the production and business work, from flights to exploit and explore oil and gas on the very first days after being formed, the corps has effectively provided more services, such as search for U.S. soldiers missing in action (MIA) during the war in Vietnam, tourism and sports activities, forest plantation, and firefighting, to name but a few.
Talking about the corps’ achievements over the past time, Gen. Hung affirmed that from the early days with a small number of personnel and equipment, it now owns many skilled officers and staff with creative mind who are able to meet all task requirements.
The unit currently has dozens of modern helicopters and facilities, hundreds of special vehicles and modern infrastructure and equipment.
Over the past 35 years, the corps has well fulfilled defense and military tasks with good outcomes. Since 2018, the corps has successfully conducted hundreds of specialized flights, in combination with defense and military missions with absolute safety.
Besides, it has also carried out emergency flights to rescue troops and islanders on Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago, Khanh Hoa province, as well as fishermen and those working on DK1 platforms, despite harsh weather conditions.
Especially, the corps’ troops have successfully completed their tasks during drills, most recently participating in a joint military medical exercise of the three countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
It also provides maintenance and repair services as well as supplies and equipment for helicopters; training service for helicopter pilots and aviation technical staff... For many consecutive years, the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation has been ranked as an A-class enterprise with a profit/revenue ratio reaching 10-15%.
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Airplanes of the corps fly to explore and exploit oil and gas. |
Regarding solutions in the time ahead, Gen. Hung noted that the unit will further build production and business plans and development investment plan in accordance with task requirements in the current context, with the focus on maintaining the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation’s position as a leading helicopter service provider in Vietnam, while well performing all defense and military tasks.
Furthermore, the corps should also raise personnel’s quality and promote training to raise troops’ competence, upgrade infrastructure, while educating troops to be well aware of their tasks so that they would overcome difficulties to accomplish all assigned missions.
Translated by Minh Anh