Special ops clone trooper

Special ops clone troopers, also known as stealth ops clones, were a variant of the clone troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic. Equipped with specialized clone trooper armor, special ops clones were trained for stealth and served with distinction in the Clone Wars.

History[]

SpecialOpsCloneTrooper-CaM — Special Ops clone troopers served aboard the stealth ship.

Special ops clone troopers^[3] were soldiers in the Grand Army of the Republic,^[1] trained to move quickly and quietly and detect enemies at a distance, while also wearing advanced gear that improved their senses.^[4]

During the Clone Wars, Clone Commander Jet was a special ops clone trooper who^[1] commanded a battalion^[5] made up of special ops troops and clone flametroopers.^[1]

Jet2-LAPR — Clone Commander Jet and members of his battalion during the Second Battle of Geonosis

During the Battle of Christophsis, Clone Commander Blackout and clone trooper Spark were among the several special ops clones who served aboard a IPV-2C Stealth Corvette under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker. Together, they were able to break through the Separatist blockade under Admiral Trench and deliver supplies to Senator Bail Organa's compound in Chaleydonia.^[2] Later, Jet and his battalion were placed under the command of Jedi General Ki-Adi-Mundi during the Second Battle of Geonosis.^[1]

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Behind the scenes[]

BlueSpecialopstrooper — Concept art of a special ops clone trooper with blue markings

The special ops clone troopers first appeared in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Landing at Point Rain."^[1] During a question and answer short for StarWars.com, Supervising Director Dave Filoni, who had nicknamed the clones "Leia Troopers" after Princess Leia Organa's hair-buns, revealed the special ops troopers were originally designed to be communication troopers. Under this interpretation, troopers were equipped with communications gear, similar to the communication officers of the Second World War, and were in charge of all communications for the clone trooper units they were stationed in. Additionally, the troopers were given antennas on their helmet bumps, which Filoni called earmuffs. He compared this design to a large pair of headphones. This communication trooper role was included in the script for Landing at Point Rain, but, late in production, Filoni and George Lucas reviewed their role, noting that most characters in Star Wars already had personal communication devices. Believing their role was redundant, Lucas decided the idea was not working and elected to not use it.^[6]^[7]

The troopers were subsequently redesigned, being turned into the "preceding commandos"/special ops clones seen in the final version of Landing at Point Rain. The Clone Wars later reused them as for stealth ship crew in "Cat and Mouse" because, as Filoni recalled, the special ops clones looked like they could fill the role. He also noted that, while the stealth ship ops clones were meant to be black and grey, some of these clones in Cat and Mouse were the orange troopers seen on Geonosis. This was because the overseas animation studio accidentally left the orange coloring on some of the episode's shots when rendering them. Due to the amount of shots, complex effects, and lack of time, the episode was not re-rendered, and The Clone Wars team color-corrected the clones in post-production. Still, some clone troopers in the episode are clearly a part of Jet's unit, but Filoni felt the crew had corrected them well enough for the final product.^[6]^[7]