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Vietnam NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces: Largest military force in Southeast Asia
and third largest force in the world after China and the Soviet
Union. Estimated in 1987 to total over 5 million: army, 1.2
million; navy, 15,000; air force, 20,000; Regional Force,
500,000; Militia-Self Defense Force, 1.2 million; Armed Youth
Assault Force, 1,500,000; and Tactical Rear Force, 500,000.
Combat Units and Major Equipment: Command structure
divided geographically into military theaters and military
regions or zones. Tactically divided into corps, divisions,
brigades, regiments, and battalions, companies, platoons, and
squads. Army comprised eight corps (each numbering 30,000 to
50,000 troops). In 1986 total of thirty-eight regular infantry
divisions: nineteen in Cambodia, ten in northern Vietnam, six in
central and southern Vietnam, and three in Laos. Thirteen
economic construction divisions, which carried burden of 1979 war
with China, deployed in China border region. Army equipped with
1,600 Soviet-made T-34 -54 -55 -62, Type-59 tanks and 450 PT-76
and type 60 63 light tanks; 2,700 reconnaissance vehicles; some
600 artillery guns and howitzers, unspecified number of multiple
rocket launchers, mortars, and antitank weapons; and 3,000 air
defense weapons. Navy, with Soviet assistance, largest naval
force in Southeast Asia in 1986. Five naval regions,
headquartered at Da Nang, Haiphong, Vinh, Vung Tau, and Rach Gia.
Navy equipped with 2 principal combat vessels, 192 patrol boats,
51 amphibious warfare ships, 104 landing ships, and 133 auxiliary
craft. Approximately 1,300 ex-United States, South Vietnamese
naval vessels, naval and civilian junks and coasters augment this
force. Air Force divided into seventeen air regiments, (seven
attack fighter plane regiments, four basic and advanced training
regiments, three cargo transport regiments, three helicopter
regiments, and one light bomber force), headquartered at Noi Bai
(Hanoi), Da Nang, Tho Xuan, and Tan Son Nhut (Ho Chi Minh City).
Air Force equipped with some 450 combat aircraft (including 225
MiG-21s), 225 trainers, 350 cargo-transport planes, 600
helicopters, and 60 light bombers.
Military Budget: No expenditure estimates available.
Military aid from Soviet Union estimated about US$1.5 billion
annually beginning in 1986.
Police Agencies and Paramilitary: Police functions
vested in People's Security Force (PSF), People's Public Security
Force (PPSF), and People's Armed Security Force (PASF). PSF
strictly law enforcement agency operating chiefly in urban rather
than rural areas. PASF composed of party security cadres and PAVN
personnel concerned with illegal political acts and insurgency
movements as well as criminal activity.
Foreign Military Alliances: Friendship and cooperation
treaties signed with Laos in 1977, Soviet Union in 1978, and
Cambodia in 1979.
Data as of December 1987
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