40-year-old heroine and teammates conquer core technology, develop rocket industry

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At the 11th National Emulation Congress held yesterday, typical and advanced collectives and individuals reported on emulation work.

Among the typical advanced individuals is Hero of the People's Armed Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang - Director of C4, Viettel Aerospace Institute.

Senior Lieutenant General Vo Minh Luong - Deputy Minister of National Defense - said that in recent years, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang (born in 1985) has had outstanding achievements in researching and developing weapons and equipment, contributing to the modernization of the Army. Within 5 years, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang has received the Fatherland Protection Medal, certificates of merit from the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defense, the title of Emulation Fighter of the whole Army and many other awards.

Notably, last August, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces in the renovation period by the President.

"If I step back, who will step forward?"

At the congress, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang reported on the research, conquest, and mastery of core technology, contributing to the development of Vietnam's missile industry. After her speech, she received a big round of applause from General Secretary To Lam and the delegates.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang

According to Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang, missile technology is a highly specialized field, and any country that can master it will contribute to enhancing the strength and combat readiness and victory of the Army. Therefore, missile production technology is always kept secret at the highest level in countries.

"When assigned to research and develop core technology, my engineering team and I faced many seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Especially, as a woman, for me, the challenge is even greater when I still have to fulfill the role of a mother of 2 young children and the whole family. There were times when all that pressure came at once, making me wonder ' Do I have enough strength to continue' . But then I told myself ' If I step back, who will step forward? If I give up, who will pass this difficulty on to?'" - Lieutenant Colonel Hang shared.

It was the responsibility to the Fatherland that urged her and her teammates to persevere. From then on, she and her research team determined that "to master rocket technology, we cannot give up, we can only do it again and again until we succeed."

Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang recalls the time when Viettel Group was assigned the task of researching and developing medium-range anti-ship missiles. In particular, the "guide head" - likened to the eyes of the missile - is one of the most difficult and complicated components, determining the effectiveness and value of the missile.

Realizing the special role of this department and the significance of its mission to the Army and the country, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang, from her position as Deputy Director of the Center, volunteered to take on the role of an engineer at the "self-guided" project board.

She confided: "When we started with only 7 people, we had almost nothing - no one had worked in the rocket field, no complete documents, no infrastructure for research, and no cooperation from foreign partners. But the biggest difficulty was that we had not yet defined what a 'self-guided head' was."

Because the goal has not been determined, the team is worried that the research may fail, leading to a waste of effort and assets, and not meeting the expectations of the Party, State and Army.

Radio homing head

To overcome the challenge, Ms. Hang said the project team had to solve two major problems. The first problem was to clarify the operating principle and structure of the homing head. The second problem was to build a testing process that accurately reflected the missile's operating environment, in order to verify the operation of the homing head.

For the first problem, Ms. Hang and her teammates applied the "reverse engineering" method, simulating combat situations, building hundreds of scenarios and many trial versions to gradually perfect the lead.

For the second problem, she and her teammates came up with a creative and innovative solution. That was to research and build a test firing room. This was the first missile test firing room in Southeast Asia. Next, she and her teammates used canoes and guided aircraft to approach the target instead of firing missiles for testing.

With these creative methods, the team of officers and soldiers has shortened research time and saved hundreds of billions of dong for the State.

As long as there is work and strength, there will be work.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang and her teammates went through a challenging journey, working nights to exhaustion with the spirit of "as long as there is work and strength, we will continue to work". Some officers and soldiers had nosebleeds, just used tissue to stop the bleeding temporarily and then continued working.

During the long days of testing at sea, the young engineers suffered from seasickness but still tried to complete the task.

During the on-board testing, the technicians were initially concerned about flight safety. However, with perseverance, knowledge and determination, Viettel's team convinced them to join. Many flights required low altitudes, potentially dangerous, but everyone was ready to face them.

In the early stages of research, when there was a lack of equipment, the officers and soldiers still found ways to overcome it. Ms. Hang said that when developing immersion welding technology - a welding technology in the aerospace field, due to the lack of specialized equipment, the research team took advantage of mini gas stoves and household aluminum pots to do it.

In 2020, the product was accepted by the Ministry of National Defense, marking the first success in the research and development of medium-range subsonic anti-ship missiles of the Army. This success affirmed the high-tech mastery capacity of Vietnamese engineers, marking a historical milestone when for the first time, Vietnamese people were autonomous in researching, designing and successfully manufacturing "self-seeking heads" - a complex component that many developed countries have not yet been able to do.

The products have quality equivalent to foreign products, have great political, military and economic significance, contribute to security and successful operations, and enhance the strength and combat readiness of our Army.

General Secretary To Lam and delegates visit missile components at Viettel's booth.

After the initial success, Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang and her teammates also successfully developed "guided" product lines for new types of missiles, with longer range and higher accuracy.

In fact, to develop a missile line, developed countries usually take at least 10 years, but in just 8 years, Vietnamese officers and soldiers have successfully researched 3 lines of self-guided products and altitude-measuring radars for 3 lines of anti-ship missiles, helping missiles to fly along the sea at very low altitudes and resist electronic warfare.

Along with that, the officers and soldiers built facilities and research infrastructure as a foundation to develop new, more modern product lines in the future.

"We are very proud that in just a short time we have researched and developed new, modern product lines that contribute to the overall achievements of Viettel Aerospace Institute and have been awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the Party and State.

Today's success is just the beginning. We still have many challenges ahead of us, as developed countries are decades ahead of us," Lieutenant Colonel Le Thi Hang affirmed.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nu-anh-hung-cung-dong-doi-chinh-phuc-cong-nghe-loi-phat-trien-nganh-ten-lua-2445820.html