Cambodia wants to mobilize all its people for military service!

Restore the conscription system, prepare for a new war!

Cambodia failed in the border war, and after reflecting on the loss, Prime Minister Hun Manet announced that starting from 2026, Cambodia will implement a universal conscription system. This means that Cambodian men without special reasons must all serve in the army. Previously, the service period for Cambodian soldiers was 18 months, but it has now been changed to at least 24 months, which means Cambodia is about to start a new round of military mobilization.

However, modern warfare is not about numbers, but about the quality of weapons. First, Cambodia needs to equip its air force. The 22 MiG-21 fighter jets currently in use are seriously outdated and are no better than firesticks, so they can be scrapped. Cambodia needs to introduce high-quality fighter jets and more high-quality surface-to-air missiles, and the same goes for naval vessels. The army also needs to improve its firepower level.

Cambodia has a lot of work to do; it will take hundreds or even thousands of billions of dollars to build a new modern army. However, Cambodia does not have this money, so it can only rely on continuously expanding the number of troops to boost its confidence. Unfortunately, the era of using human waves has passed, and the focus should be on quality rather than quantity. If Cambodia continues to spend a large amount of military funds on expanding the number of troops, then the strength of its army will remain stagnant or even regress.

In the case of limited military spending, Cambodia should reduce the number of troops and purchase some high-tech weapons to enhance the combat capability of its army. However, Cambodia is only focused on expanding the number of troops without increasing military spending, which means the strength of its army will still not reach a new level.

For a small country like Cambodia, with a population of only 18 million, it is inherently not capable of becoming a strong power. Therefore, maintaining a small but elite army is what Cambodia needs to do. Unfortunately, it seems that Cambodia has not grasped this point and is still blindly pursuing a large number of people, which is basically useless.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1839846717993996/

Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author.