#conflict
Conflict between Cambodia and Thailand: how do their armies compare?
Months of latent tensions between Cambodia and Thailand escalated into armed conflict on Thursday, including the deployment of a Thai F-16 fighter jet, in the most violent clashes between the two Southeast Asian neighbors in over a decade.
Here is an overview of the defense forces and arsenals of the two countries, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in London:
BUDGETS AND GROUND PERSONNEL
Cambodia had a defense budget of $1.3 billion in 2024 and counted 124,300 active military personnel. The armed forces were established in 1993, resulting from the merger of the former communist army and two other resistance armies.
Among these forces, the Cambodian army is the largest, with around 75,000 soldiers, supported by more than 200 combat tanks and approximately 480 artillery pieces.
Thailand, which the United States considers a major non-NATO ally, has a large and well-funded military, with a defense budget of $5.73 billion in 2024 and more than 360,000 active military members.
The Thai army totals 245,000 personnel, including about 115,000 conscripts, around 400 combat tanks, over 1,200 armored personnel carriers, and approximately 2,600 artillery pieces.