Military profile
Cambodia Military Strength
Cambodia ranks #106 of 145 in the Global Firepower military strength ranking, with 100,000 active personnel. It spent $739 million on its military in 2025 (1.5% of GDP).
Cambodia armed forces in numbers
Personnel
- Active military personnel
- 100,000#43 of 145
- Reserve military personnel
- 0#84 of 145
- Paramilitary forces
- 10,000#66 of 145
- Army personnel
- 85,000#42 of 145
- Air force personnel
- 10,000#58 of 145
- Navy personnel
- 2,800#73 of 145
Air power
- Total military aircraft
- 24#110 of 145
- Fighter aircraft
- 0#95 of 145
- Attack aircraft
- 0#65 of 145
- Military helicopters
- 20#94 of 145
- Attack helicopters
- 0#79 of 145
Land forces
- Tanks
- 644#29 of 145
- Self-propelled artillery
- 18#76 of 145
- Towed artillery
- 320#34 of 145
- Rocket artillery
- 460#15 of 145
Naval power
- Aircraft carriers
- 0#8 of 113
- Destroyers
- 0#15 of 113
- Frigates
- 0#56 of 113
- Corvettes
- 0#47 of 113
- Submarines
- 0#44 of 113
- Patrol vessels
- 20#49 of 113
- Mine warfare vessels
- 0#53 of 113
Finance
- Military spending
- $739 million#89 of 156
- Military spending as % of GDP
- 1.5%#91 of 156
- Purchasing power parity (GDP, PPP)
- $70.0 billion#96 of 145
Equipment and personnel: Global Firepower 2023 military strength ranking (2023). Spending: World Bank / SIPRI military expenditure data (CC BY 4.0).
Cambodia military spending 2010–2025
Military spending of Cambodia grew by 340% between 2010 and 2025, from $168 million to $739 million (current US dollars), and stood at 1.5% of GDP in 2025.
Armed forces of Cambodia
Branches and forces
Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF): Royal Cambodian Army, Royal Khmer Navy, Royal Cambodian Air Force, Royal Gendarmerie (Military Police); National Committee for Maritime Security (2025)
Personnel
information varies; estimated 200,000 Armed Forces, including Gendarmerie (2025)
Service age and conscription
18 is the legal minimum age for military service for men and women (2025)
Equipment and suppliers
the RCAF is armed largely with older Chinese and Russian/Soviet origin armaments; in recent years it has received limited amounts of more modern equipment from several suppliers, particularly China (2025)
Deployments abroad
340 Central African Republic (MINUSCA); 180 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2025)
Good to know
the primary responsibilities of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) are border, coastal, and internal security; key security partners include China and Vietnam; in July 2025, following months of rising tensions, the RCAF and the military forces of Thailand clashed in multiple locations along their disputed border; both sides blamed the other for provoking the five-day conflict, which included cross-border artillery shelling by both sides and air attacks by RTARF fighter aircraft and drones the RCAF was re-established in 1993 under the first coalition government from the merger of the Cambodian Government’s military forces (Cambodian People’s Armed Forces) and the two non-communist resistance forces (Sihanoukist National Army, aka National Army for Khmer Independence, and the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces); thousands of communist Khmer Rouge fighters began surrendering by 1994 under a government amnesty program and the last of the Khmer Rouge forces (National Army of Democratic Kampuchea) were demobilized or absorbed into the RCAF in 1999 (2025)
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
2024: 1.5% · 2023: 1.5% · 2022: 2.1% · 2021: 2.3% · 2020: 2.3%
Forces and service: CIA World Factbook (public domain).
Vietnam
Thailand
Laos