If you’re hunting for Cambodian fighter jets, pack binoculars—and a time machine. There aren’t any. Phnom Penh’s “air force” is essentially a small logistics service built around aging transports and a few helicopters that mostly shuttle people and supplies. Meanwhile, Thailand fields an actual combat-capable air fleet with fighters, strike capacity, surveillance platforms, and the ability to surge, sustain, and win control of the sky. This isn’t a matchup; it’s a flyswatter versus a fighter jet.

The Scoreboard (and it isn’t close)

• Total aircraft: Thailand 493 vs Cambodia 25. Thailand has almost 20 times the fleet.

• Fighters & attack aircraft: Thailand 92 vs Cambodia 0. Thailand can scramble F‑16s; Cambodia can scramble a press release.

• Transports: Thailand 54 vs Cambodia 7. Even on the “haul boxes and medevac” niche, Thailand still dominates.

• Trainers: Thailand 135 vs Cambodia 0. Thailand can train pilots at scale; Cambodia can… hope someone else does.

• Special mission aircraft (AWACS, ISR, EW, etc.): Thailand 26 vs Cambodia 0. Thailand can see, sense, and coordinate. Cambodia flies blind.

• Total helicopters: Thailand 258 vs Cambodia 32. Thailand has more helicopters than Cambodia has aircraft—full stop.

• Attack helicopters: Thailand 7 vs Cambodia 0. Thailand brings gunships; Cambodia brings none.

Air Superiority? Thailand Has It by Default

Air wars are won first in the radar scope and then in the merge. Thailand possesses both the platforms and the doctrine to gain and hold air superiority. Cambodia lacks even the first rung on the ladder: fighter aircraft. Without fighters, without special-mission eyes in the sky, without a training pipeline, and without scale, Cambodia’s “air power” can’t contest the battlespace—it can barely enter it.

Logistics Wing vs. Fighting Force

Cambodia’s fleet is built to move people and things in permissive airspace. Thailand’s is built to detect, deter, and, if required, destroy. One side brings precision strike, integrated air defense suppression, and persistent ISR; the other brings a handful of aging utility aircraft that would be lucky to survive the first hour of a real shooting war.

Strategy by Reality Check

If tensions spike, Thailand doesn’t need to “win” the air war—it starts with it won. Cambodia’s only rational play is political: internationalize the crisis, call for UN intervention, and keep its aircraft on the ground. Because once they’re airborne, the mismatch gets solved at Mach speed.

Bottom Line

Cambodia’s air force isn’t an air force in any modern sense of the term. It’s a patchwork support wing. Thailand’s, by comparison, is a credible, layered, and lethal aerial capability. So when someone says “Cambodia vs Thailand: Air Power,” the only honest answer is: What air power?