11,000 combatants, plus an additional "8,500 fighters permanently inside Cambodia.". Major General Prince Norodom Chakrapong functioned as deputy chief of staff. Combat and manoeuvre elements consisted of battalions grouped under six brigades, four additional independent regiments (at least one composed of Khmer Rouge deserters), and a further five independent commando groups. Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces The Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (KPRAF) constituted the regular armed forces of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) under Vietnamese occupation. It was promoted and supervised by Hanoi and established immediately after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in order to sanitize the regime's image ruling a legitimate and sovereign state. Furthermore, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) would require an effective Khmer military force that eventually could replace NVA units in future security tasks. The establishment of a sovereign ethnic Khmer army also addressed the problem of traditional fears and widespread hate towards the Vietnamese among the population, and was instrumental for the upkeep of public order. However, it remained a very delicate matter, as several recent precedents had seriously affected Cambodia's fortunes, such as supporting Khmer communist factions and raising regiments of Khmer troops for the Vietnamese invasion. Nonetheless, the KPRAF consolidated as the official military force and served as an instrument of both the party and the state. These measures remained classified, and much that could be concluded about the armed forces of the PRK was based on analysis rather than incontrovertible hard data. Foreign armed forces As many as 200,000 troops invaded Cambodia in 1978. Designated by Hanoi as "The Vietnamese volunteer army in Kampuchea", the PAVN force, comprising some ten to twelve divisions, was made up of conscripts who supported a "regime of military administration." After several years, Vietnam ostensibly began to decrease the size of its military contingent in Cambodia. In June 1981, Vietnam's 137th Division returned home. In July 1982, Hanoi announced it would withdraw an unspecified number of troops as these withdrawals became annual occurrences with elaborate departure ceremonies. However, critical observers contended that these movements were merely troop rotations. Hanoi publicly committed itself to withdraw its occupation forces by 1990. It first announced this decision following an August 1985 meeting of Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian foreign ministers. The commitment to a pullout engendered continuing discussion, both by foreign observers and by Indochinese participants. What emerged was the clarifying qualification that a total Vietnamese military