The defense area exercise represents the highest form of training in a local defense area, holding crucial significance in comprehensively testing and evaluating the leadership capacity of party committees, the governance and administration of authorities at all levels, the advisory capacity of departments, boards, and sectors, and the combat readiness levels of the armed forces. This exercise also serves as an occasion to test the validity and efficiency of the mechanism wherein the Party leads, the government administers, departments and sectors serve as advisors, and the armed forces act as the core.

Senior Colonel Nguyễn Văn Hoạt, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the provincial Military Command, stated: “Through the exercise, party committees and authorities at all levels enhance their capacity to analyze, evaluate, and forecast situations, promptly proposing suitable guidelines and decisions in handling national defense and security situations. Concurrently, the exercise helps the locality elevate its capability to organize and direct the transition from peacetime to wartime status, promoting the combined strength of the entire political system in constructing and operating the defense area, proactively preventing and defeating sabotage plots and tricks of hostile forces, maintaining political stability, and creating a favorable environment for socio-economic development.”

Building the document system stands as a core task, acting as the brain of the exercise. To date, the standing agency of the Provincial Defense area Exercise Steering Committee has completed core documents, including guiding documents from the Organizing Committee, tactical document systems of the provincial armed forces, and command-directing documents. Simultaneously, guidelines have been issued and cadres directly dispatched to support provincial boards, departments, sectors, and localities in formulating plans to satisfy national defense requirements during the first year of war in line with exact standards.

For Frame A, agencies have proactively prepared document systems serving phases of transitioning combat readiness status, organizing defense operation preparations, and practicing defense combat, achieving approximately 70 percent of the workload. For Frame B, provincial boards, departments, sectors, the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and mass organizations are urgently finalizing sectoral defense operation plans in accordance with instructions from the provincial Military Command. They are also preparing meeting contents for the Provincial Party Committee, the Executive Board of the provincial Party Committee, the People’s Council, and the People’s Committee during states of transitioning the locality into a national defense emergency and into wartime.

Alongside the document system, force preparation work has been implemented seriously by agencies and units to ensure strict adherence to regulations. The provincial Military Command formulated plans to review, verify, and manage reserve soldiers, while advising the provincial People’s Committee to issue decisions calling up reserve soldiers for mobilization readiness alarms serving the provincial defense area exercise with live-fire drills. Regiment 741 was assigned to build training plans for mobilization reserve forces and militia participating in live-fire combat exercises. Live-fire options were formulated in strict compliance with directives and guidelines from the Military Region 2 Exercise Steering Committee and military training regulations.

If the document system serves as the baseline for the operational mechanism, physical facilities, drill fields, and command posts represent direct conditions ensuring the exercise proceeds on schedule. Therefore, construction items serving the exercise are being concentrated on for completion in an urgent spirit while guaranteeing quality.

Under the plan, the provincial-level mechanism phase will be organized at the Hall of the provincial Military Command and the mock battle base in Chiềng Tông village, Thanh Yên commune. Currently, items within the mock battle base have reached about 80 percent of the workload and are expected to be finalized before July 30. At the grassroots level, after receiving tasks, the exercise task organization committees of Mường Thanh ward and Mường Ảng commune surveyed locations serving commune and ward-level defense area exercise tasks and constructed exercise areas within the province’s mock battle base, reaching roughly 85 percent progress.

At the tactical drill area, the general training field of the provincial Military Command in Chiềng Tông village is being urgently built to serve live-fire, blank ammunition, and explosives drills, as well as receiving mobilization reserve forces, with construction progress reaching around 70 percent. Meanwhile, the A2 tactical drill area of the Provincial Police is deployed at the province’s new Administrative Center to satisfy requirements for handling security and order situations during the exercise.

A notable highlight of the 2026 Điện Biên provincial Defense Area Exercise lies in various innovations in both organization and content. According to the plan, the exercise is organized under a one-sided, two-level format tied to the two-tier local governance model. Exercise contents closely combine with large-scale civil defense drills, supplementing situations related to non-traditional security and applying information technology and digital data in command and control. In particular, hypothetical situations are designed close to the actual conditions of a border province and suitable for terrain and area characteristics, thereby comprehensively testing leadership, command, and coordination capacities among forces in handling national defense and security situations.

Under the schedule, following a training course on theoretical foundations of defense area construction and operations, forces will enter a phase of training, joint rehearsals, and final reviews before officially organizing the exercise in September. Driven by the close leadership and direction of the provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee, the proactiveness of the armed forces, and tight coordination among boards, departments, sectors, and localities, preparations for the 2026 Điện Biên provincial Defense Area Exercise are being deployed synchronously, on schedule, and with guaranteed quality. Điện Biên province is determined to organize a successful, safe, practical, and requirement-fulfilling 2026 provincial defense area exercise.