Special Operations Brigade

The Special Operations Brigade (SO BDE) was the special forces division of the Grand Army of the Republic, made up of clone commandos, covert ops clone troopers, Clone assassins, Advanced Recon Commandos, and clone shadow troopers.

Clone Wars
As the Clone Wars began, the Jedi Order formed the Special Ops Brigade to complete independent, special operation for the Galactic Senate, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and the Jedi High Council. Stationed with Arca Company Barracks, the Special Ops Brigade was led by Jedi General Iri Camas and later Jedi General Arligan Zey. When General Zey took command, the brigade consisted of 5,762 troops.

Command structure of SO BDE

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

Notable SO BDE units

 * Aiwha Squad
 * Ion Team
 * Muunilinst 10
 * Zero Five Commando
 * Arca Company
 * Delta Squad
 * Omega Squad
 * Veshok Squad
 * Ord Cestus Squad
 * 44th Special Operations Division
 * Devil Dogs

Special ops variants

 * Clone commandos mostly conducted Direct Action and Special Recon missions, in a tactical capacity.
 * Alpha-class Advanced Recon Commandos served a more strategically important purpose, conducting Special Recon and Unconventional Warfare missions. However they also undertook Direct Actions missions although not as commonly as the commandos did.
 * Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos were BlackOps clones who specialized in Special Activities, counterintelligence, intelligence, combating terrorism and espionage.
 * Shadow troopers and covert-ops troopers acted as support units for commandos and ARCs and were trained in the same areas as well.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars novel
 * Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Omega Squad: Targets
 * Republic Commando: Triple Zero
 * Republic Commando: True Colors
 * Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
 * Imperial Commando: 501st