The Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia or Royal Cambodian Gendarmerie ( km, កងរាជអាវុធហត្ថ, ), or "

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

", is a branch of the

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF; km, កងយោធពលខេមរភូមិន្ទ ) is Cambodia's national military force. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief is King Norodom Sihamoni. Since 2018, General Vong Pisen has been ...

and it is responsible for the maintenance of public order and internal security in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

. The

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

unit has a strength of 30,000 soldiers deployed in all provinces. Its headquarters is located in Phnom Penh, with the unit's

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part. Milit ...

through the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces High Command. The Gendarmerie is under the direct supervision of a commander with an equivalent rank to

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

. The High Command is responsible for monitoring all Gendarmerie units as well as general

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

. The current commander of Gendarmerie is lieutenant-General Sao Sokha, a former bodyguard and personal advisor to Cambodian Prime minister

Hun Sen Hun Sen (; km, ហ៊ុន សែន, ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military commander who has served as the prime minister of Cambodia since 1985. He is the longest-serving head of government of Cambodia, and ...

Duties

The Gendarmerie Royale Khmere duties are: * Restoring peace and stability if they have been heavily disturbed * Counter terrorism * Countering violent groups * Repressing riots in prisons Its civil duties include: to provide security and public peace, to investigate and prevent organised crime, terrorism and other violent groups; to protect state and private property; to help and assist civilians and other emergency forces in a case of emergency, natural disaster, civil unrest and armed conflicts. Its military duties include: to preserve and protect national security, state, property, public peace, and public order, and to assist other security forces in case of emergency, civil unrest, war; to repress riots; to reinforce martial law and mobilisation; to fight and apprehend suspected criminals, terrorists and other violent groups.

Organization

The Gendarmerie Royale Khmere consists of 10 battalion sized units. Each battalion has between 500 – 1000 policemen. The principal bases are located in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

. The Gendarmerie monitors all the 25 provinces and 186 districts, working with the local people. The unit includes: a mobile team, consisting of six intervention units, an intervention vehicle battalion, a

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in ...

, and 4

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

, with bases in Phnom Penh. The Gendarmerie training school is located in Kambol commune, Kandal Province.

Equipment

The standard weapons of the Royal Gendarmerie of Cambodia are the

Makarov PM The Makarov pistol or PM ( rus, Пистоле́т Мака́рова, r=Pistolét Makárova, p=pʲɪstɐˈlʲet mɐˈkarəvə, t=Makarov's Pistol) is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it ...

M 9mm

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

, the Type 56-2 assault rifle, the

M16A1 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-roun ...

assault rifle with the

M203 grenade launcher The M203 is a single-shot 40 mm under-barrel grenade launcher designed to attach to a rifle. It uses the same rounds as the older stand-alone M79 break-action grenade launcher, which utilizes the high-low propulsion system to keep recoil forces ...

AKMS The AKM () is an assault rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1959. It is the most ubiquitous rifle of the Kalashnikov rifles. It was developed as a replacement to the AK-47 introduced a decade prior. Introduced ...

assault rifle and the

Type 56 The Type 56 (; literally; "Assault Rifle, Model of 1956") is a Chinese 7.62×39mm rifle. It is a variant of the Soviet-designed AK-47 (specifically Type 3) and AKM rifles.Miller, David (2001). ''The Illustrated Directory of 20th Century Guns' ...

assault rifle. Usually PM Officer and drivers are assigned the Type 56-2 and gunners are the PKM

general purpose machine gun A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered f ...

. Crew-served or vehicle based weapons include the Type 80 general purpose machine gun on tripod with 250 round boxes and the Type 77 heavy machine gun. Mounted MP teams often carry at least one B-40 or

RPG-7 The RPG-7 (russian: link=no, РПГ-7, Ручной Противотанковый Гранатомёт, Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyot) is a portable, reusable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank, rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Th ...

D as well.

Weapons

Vehicles

Aircraft

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Gendarmerie Of Cambodia Military of Cambodia Military units and formations established in 1970 Gendarmerie Law enforcement in Cambodia