Vietnam converts BTR-152s for peacekeeping missions.
Vietnam will deploy its first unit-level peacekeeping force to a United Nations mission in South Sudan within 12 months.
After deploying a few officers on "advance" missions to United Nations peacekeeping operations, the Vietnam People's Army will soon send a larger force, including engineering teams and a Level 2 field hospital.
Field hospitals are tasked with treating and caring for military personnel, civilians, and United Nations staff who are injured, killed, or ill in their deployment area, or who are transferred from Level 1 field hospitals.
Currently, the Vietnamese field hospital has a staff of 70 people, including doctors, nurses, and medical assistants... who are seconded from Military Hospital 175, Military Region 7, Corps 4, the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, and the Military Medical Department.
The field hospital is organized into departments including: Outpatient Department, Surgery - Specialties Department, Internal Medicine - Infectious Diseases Department, Pharmacy - Equipment Department, and Support (Logistics) Department.
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| Training activities at Vietnam's Level 2 Field Hospital. |
Due to operating in a complex area, the need to be equipped with specialized vehicles to ensure the safety of ambulance services and patient transport is an urgent requirement.
Only a small portion of the equipment for member states participating in UN peacekeeping missions is provided; most of it is brought from their own countries. Therefore, for Vietnam to be self-sufficient, bringing its own equipment is the most logical option.
Recently, images have emerged of a BTR-152 armored vehicle modified by Vietnam for this special mission. The vehicle has had its machine gun removed, a significantly higher roof installed compared to the original, and is painted white with a red cross emblem on the side.
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| Vietnam is converting BTR-152 armored vehicles into ambulances. |
The modified BTR-152 armored vehicle is believed to provide a fairly reliable level of protection for doctors, nurses, or patients against light infantry weapons that may be used by rebel groups.
The BTR-152's mobility is relatively good, especially since Vietnam recently implemented a program to replace the original gasoline engines with more powerful and fuel-efficient diesel engines, making the vehicle much more efficient.
Following the BTR-152 armored vehicle modified into an ambulance, it is highly likely that the engineering corps will bring their own "war machine," the IRM-2M mounted on a T-72 tank chassis, to Africa for deployment.
