Grand Army of the Republic/Legends



"As my first act with this new authority, I will create a Grand Army of the Republic to counter the increasing threat of the Separatists."

- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR for short), also known as the Clone Army or Republic Army, was the armed forces of the Galactic Republic in its final years, and afterwards served as the nucleus for the armed forces of the Galactic Empire.

It was created by the Kaminoan "cloners" on Kamino, and comprised of two hundred thousand clone trooper units and their war machines, as of the start of the Clone Wars.

The template for the clones was bounty hunter Jango Fett, whose only request in return, in addition of course to an abundance of credits, was an unaltered clone by the name of Boba.

After the initial engagements, a million more clone trooper divisions were added to the ranks of the army, followed by additional millions by the conclusion of the war.

The origin of the Grand Army
At the beginning of the Palpatine government (32 BBY), the Republic had no standing armed forces, though the debate about the adoption of one had been ongoing for decades. At one time, the Republic's army and navy forces were considerable, but in the wake of the Light and Darkness War (1,000 BBY), a gradual process of downscaling began, in favor of increased support from the Jedi Order. More and more often, the Jedi were called upon to act as negotiators with teeth. But as crises piled upon each other, some within the order began to sense a coming darkness, which their numbers alone would not be sufficient to fight. The creation of a clone army was apparently secretly ordered by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas without the knowledge or approval of his comrades, though it was actually part of a plot concocted by Darth Sidious to craft an army for the Sith Lords.

Though the clone troopers fought under Jedi lead during the Clone Wars, the army was turned against some loyalists and the Jedi when the Galactic Empire was formed at the war's end. Supreme Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine wielded executive control over the army, and transformed it into the military of his Galactic Empire.

Order of Battle
The army was split into separate Orders of Battle (ORBATs). These were regular forces, and Special Forces. Most of the structure of the regular forces was unchanged through the Clone Wars and was even used by the Galactic Empire. The special forces were highly independent clone commandos that had specific objectives and required very little help from Jedi commanders.

Command structure of regular forces

 * Grand Army&mdash;10 systems armies plus an additional 3,000,000 troops with Supreme Chancellor as commander-in-chief.
 * Systems Army&mdash;2 Sector Armies (294,912 troops) led by a High Jedi General (Jedi Council Member)
 * Sector Army&mdash;4 corps (147,456 troops) by a Senior Jedi General (Jedi Master)
 * Corps&mdash;4 legions (36,864 troops) led by a Clone Marshal Commander and Jedi General.
 * Legion/Brigade&mdash;4 regiments (9,216 troops) led by a Senior Clone Commander and a Jedi General.
 * Regiment&mdash;4 battalions (2,304 troops) led by a Jedi Padawan Commander.
 * Battalion&mdash;4 companies (576 troops) led by a Major.
 * Company&mdash;4 platoons (144 troops) led by a Captain.
 * Platoon&mdash;4 squads (36 troops) led by a Lieutenant.
 * Squad&mdash;9 troops led by a Sergeant.

Command structure of special forces

 * Special Operations Brigade (SO BDE)&mdash;20 groups (5,000 men), commanded by Jedi General Arligan Zey, made up of 10 battalions by one year after the Battle of Geonosis.
 * Commando Group&mdash;5 companies (500 men), commanded by Junior Jedi General Bardan Jusik (Jedi Knight).
 * Company&mdash;5 troops (100 men).
 * Troop&mdash;5 squads (20 men).
 * Squad&mdash;4 men.

Artillery

 * All Terrain Attack Pod
 * All Terrain Experimental Transport
 * Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery
 * Unstable Terrain Artillery Transport

Armor

 * All Terrain Armored Transport
 * All Terrain Heavy Enforcer
 * All Terrain Tactical Enforcer
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A4 Juggernaut
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A5 Juggernaut
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A6 Juggernaut

Heavy cavalry

 * All Terrain-Personal Transport
 * Infantry Support Platform
 * TX-130S fighter tank
 * TX-130T fighter tank

Combat service support

 * Low Altitude Assault Transport/cargo
 * Low Altitude Assault Transport/vehicle

Aerial assault

 * HAET-221 gunboat
 * Low Altitude Assault Transport/infantry

Mechanized infantry

 * All Terrain Armored Transport
 * All Terrain Open Transport
 * All Terrain Tactical Enforcer
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A4 Juggernaut
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A5 Juggernaut
 * Heavy Assault Vehicle/wheeled A6 Juggernaut
 * Republic Troop Transport

Reconnaissance

 * 74-Z speeder bike
 * All Terrain Recon Transport
 * All Terrain Scout Transport
 * BARC speeder
 * Republic recon speeder
 * 105-K lancer bike

Notable divisions

 * 7th Sky Corps
 * 9th Assault Corps
 * 41st Elite Legion
 * 91st Reconnaissance Corps
 * 212th Attack Battalion
 * 327th Star Corps
 * 501st Legion
 * Delta Squad
 * Galactic Marines
 * Homeworld Security Command
 * Lancer Battalion
 * Sky Corps
 * Squad Seven

Behind the scenes

 * The GAR is actually the second armed force in the prequels to be given the name "grand army." The first was the Gungan Grand Army from The Phantom Menace. No one has yet explained Lucas's penchant for using this term for his military organizations, though it can be speculated that he was fond of the name of Napoleon Bonaparte's imperial armed forces, the Grand Army or La Grande Armee.


 * Also, the name "Grand Army of the Republic" uses the same formalized language as armed forces used in the American Civil War (1861-1865). Though the overall Union Army (also known as the Northern Army or Federal Army) was named simply, its major units were given formal designations based on rivers. Thus, they were named Army of the Potomac, Army of the Ohio, Army of the Tennessee, and so on. One unit in particular, which newspapers referred to as the Grand Army of the West, was commanded by General William Tecumseh Sherman during his march through the South, and it may be this that inspired Lucas as well as the Napoleonic model. It should also be noted that the post-Civil War Union veterans' association was known as the "Grand Army of the Republic."


 * The Confederate States Army, or CSA, named its units after states or geographic regions rather than rivers, such as the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of Tennessee, the Army of the Peninsula, and the Army of the Northwest. The Confederate veterans' organization was known as the United Confederate Veterans.


 * The ongoing references to the American Civil War may be one of Lucas's subtle ways of utilizing the language of the actual Civil War to flesh out his own fictitious civil war. This is likely also why he used the name "Confederacy" to refer to the breakaway segments of the Republic, as opposed to some other name. For a list of other Civil War similarities, see [|here].


 * There has been some controversy surrounding the actual number of clones part of the Grand Army of the Republic, with some sources (including the novelization) interpreting "units" to mean "individual clones". Meaning that, by the war's beginning, only 1,200,000 clones were available for this galactic army. (By contrast, Germany's Wehrmacht between 1939 and 1945 had close to 13,000,000 serving in the Army. In the GFFA, the Confederacy's droid armies were said to number in the quintillions.)


 * The films themselves never explained what each unit represented and most stories made since AOTC have shown hundreds of battles, many of which with massive losses for the clones, thereby negating any argument that they represented a "small, elite force" compared to regular battle droids. The Inside the Worlds of Attack of the Clones reference guide also stated that a million clone divisions were being prepared at the start of the war, with millions more undergoing evaluation.
 * In addition, the organization of forces stated in the Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic does not rule out the presence of more than a few million clones, as the Command Structure simply starts with a Grand Army, not necessarily the Grand Army of the Republic.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaings
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars
 * Star Wars Clone Wars
 * Clone Wars Volume 1: The Defense of Kamino
 * Clone Wars Volume 2: Victories and Sacrifices
 * Clone Wars Volume 3: Last Stand on Jabiim
 * Clone Wars Volume 4: Light and Dark
 * Clone Wars Volume 5: The Best Blades
 * Clone Wars Volume 6: On the Fields of Battle
 * Clone Wars Volume 7: When They Were Brothers
 * The Cestus Deception
 * Medstar I: Battle Surgeons
 * Medstar II: Jedi Healer
 * Star Wars: Republic Commando
 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Secrets of the Jedi
 * Shatterpoint
 * Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Republic 78: Loyalties