Khmer National Army

Khmer National Army Armée Nationale Khmère
Khmer National Army Service Banner (1970–75)
Active	9 October 1970 – 17 April 1975
Country	Cambodia
Allegiance	Khmer Republic
Branch	Ground forces
Type	Army
Role	Land force
Size	150,000 men (at height)
Part of	Khmer National Armed Forces
Garrison/HQ	Phnom Penh
Nickname(s)	Cambodian Army (ANK in French)
Anniversaries	20 November – Army Day 15 August – Armed Forces Day
Engagements	First Indochina War Cambodian Civil War Vietnam War Laotian Civil War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Sosthene Fernandez Sak Sutsakhan Lon Non

The Khmer National Army (French: Armée Nationale Khmère – ANK) commonly known as the "Cambodian Army", was the Land Component of the Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK), the official military of the Khmer Republic during the Cambodian Civil War between 1970 and 1975.

The oldest and largest branch of the Cambodian armed forces in terms of personnel and matériel, the Khmer Royal Army (French: Armée Royale Khmère – ARK) was officially created on 20 November 1946, after the signing of a French–Khmer military agreement which defined the provisional organization of both the ARK and the mixed French-Cambodian troops. The terms of the agreement stipulated that the new armed forces would consist of indigenous territorial units stationed within Cambodia to help maintain order and a mobile reserve (French: Reserve Mobile) comprising 8,000 Khmer soldiers, to be divided on equal halves of 4,000 each between the ARK and the mixed infantry units of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO), placed at the disposal of the French High Commissioner for Indochina. The formation and instruction of the ARK units was entrusted to a French Military Training Mission (French: Mission Militaire Française d'Instruction Militaire), staffed by French Army officers and NCOs, who acted as instructors and military advisers. Three days later, the first entirely Cambodian regular military unit, the 1st Khmer Rifle Battalion (French: 1ér Bataillon de Chasseurs Khmères – 1st BCK), was raised by the French Military Mission in Phnom Penh, formed by elements transferred from both the Khmer National Guard or "Indigenous Guard" (French: Garde Indigène) and the Cambodian Rifle Regiment (French: Régiment de Tirailleurs Cambodgiens – RTC), comprising three rifle battalions, of the colonial French Union Army. A second rifle battalion (French: 2éme Bataillon de Chasseurs Khmères – 2nd BCK), created out from locally recruited Khmer irregular auxiliaries (French: Supplétifs) was raised in Kratie in December that year. Both battalions were posted to the mobile reserve in January 1947. Led by a cadre of French officers and senior NCOs, and intended to be used on internal security operations to reinforce CEFEO regular troops, the new Khmer battalions saw their first combat in 1947 against Vietminh guerrilla forces in north-eastern Cambodia. Small-scale counter-insurgency operations, this time against the Cambodian nationalist Khmer Issarak rebel movement, continued over the next three years, during which the Khmer battalions gradually assumed responsibility for the defence of Battambang and Kampong Thom Provinces, which had been part of the territory returned to Cambodia by Thailand in early 1947.