Grand Army of the Republic / Legends The Grand Army of the Republic ( GAR ) , also known as the Grand Army and the Clone Army , was a major branch of the Galactic Republic Military composed entirely of clone troopers , an army of elite soldiers created from the genetically altered template of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett . Bred in secret within the cloning facilities of the planet Kamino , the Grand Army was officially formed by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine at the behest of the Galactic Senate in response to the Separatist Crisis which threatened to divide the galaxy between the Republic and the newly born Confederacy of Independent Systems . The members of the Jedi Order were commissioned as high - ranking commanders and generals in the Grand Army , second in authority only to Chancellor Palpatine , who held the rank of Supreme Commander . Under the leadership of their Jedi officers , the Grand Army engaged the Separatist Droid Army on many worlds during the Clone Wars , suffering heavy casualties for three years while restoring Republic sovereignty to numerous rebellious areas throughout the galaxy . By the year 19 BBY , the Clone Wars were nearly over and the Republic was on the verge of a decisive victory . In the midst of the final battles , particularly in the Outer Rim Campaign , Chancellor Palpatine issued Order 66 , an calling on all clone troopers to neutralize their Jedi officers with lethal force in the event of a Jedi insurrection . The vast majority of clones , genetically engineered for loyalty and conditioned to obey all orders without question or debate , turned their weapons on the Jedi and promptly gunned them down . On Coruscant , the newly - anointed Sith Lord Darth Vader led the 501st Legion in an on the Jedi Temple , killing nearly all of its inhabitants within mere days before the Chancellor ' s Declaration of a New Order . Immediately following the Republic ' s transition into the first Galactic Empire , the Grand Army of the Republic was reorganized into the Stormtrooper Corps ; its remaining clone soldiers composing the ranks of the reformed branch in addition to the millions of new clones engineered by Spaarti technology . Under the reign of Emperor Palpatine , the Imperial stormtroopers became a symbol of the New Order , most notably due to their unwavering loyalty to the Emperor . Likewise , what ' s left of the Grand Army of the Republic formed the basis of the Imperial Army , which acted as the surface warfare branch of the Imperial Military , with the human commanders being promoted to being the officers within the branch . At the end of the Clone Wars , it was discovered that Palpatine was secretly Darth Sidious , a Dark Lord of the Sith who belonged to an order dedicated to the fall of the Republic and the destruction of the Jedi . As Palpatine and Sidious , the Dark Lord controlled both sides of the civil war and used the Grand Army as an instrument to restore Sith rule to the galaxy while simultaneously purging it of the Jedi Knights . As a result , the Grand Army of the Republic was remembered as a key factor in the Sith plot that brought about the era of the Dark Times and the subsequent Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic . History . At the beginning of the Palpatine administration ( 32 BBY ) , the Republic had no standing armed forces , though the debate about the reinstatement of an army and navy had been ongoing for decades . The only military forces were the Jedi , which kept peace for generations . The Jedi were no army though . At one time , the Republic ' s military forces were considerable , but in the wake of the New Sith Wars ( 1000 BBY ) , a gradual process of down scaling began , in favor of increased support from the Jedi Order . More and more often , the Jedi were called upon to act as negotiators . 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 secretly ordered by Jedi Master Sifo - Dyas without the knowledge or approval of his comrades , in response to the growing shadow in the Force . Sifo - Dyas had been manipulated into placing the order by Sith Lord Darth Plagueis , in his guise as Hego Damask , who used his own wealth and that of the Banking Clan to fund the army . Plagueis believed the Kaminoans would only accept the order if it came from a Jedi due to the Kaminoans ' interest in them . The GAR ' s first engagement would be at the Battle of Geonosis , where it successfully routed an unsuspecting droid army . However , this merely started off the much larger Clone Wars , in which the army took heavy losses . However , some Jedi such as Bardan Jusik felt that the Jedi Order was actually using it as a slave army , since the clones were not allowed any leave or rest , and had to fight continuously . This eventually led to Jusik leaving the Jedi Order , disgusted by its actions in allowing the Republic to use an army in such a manner . Though the clone troopers fought under the Jedi for most of the Clone Wars , Supreme Chancellor Palpatine wrested executive control over the army from the Jedi late in the war , and used the clones to destroy the Jedi Order at the start of the Great Jedi Purge when he created the Galactic Empire on the eve of the war ' s end . Having declared himself Emperor , Palpatine quickly transformed the clone army into the Stormtrooper Corps and integrated it into the military of his new Empire . After Order 66 and the Jedi Purge , a number of clones deserted the Grand Army . Most of these clones were from the Special Operations Brigade , including the partial Omega Squad , Null - class Advanced Recon Commando and some Advanced Recon Commandos such as Captain Maze . Before the end of the war , the Sector Governance Decree was issued , which placed governors on every world of the Republic , along with their own force of clone troopers . It also created the position of Moff or sector governor . Fearing for the future of democracy and the Senate ' s powers , this decision was one of several protested by the Delegation of 2000 , but they were overruled . Governors and their clone regiments began arriving on their designated worlds soon after . The total amount of clones involved in the war is not known , as their ranks were bolstered by new stocks and volunteers as the fighting dragged on . With the formation of the Galactic Empire , the Grand Army of the Republic ceased to exist and was reorganized into the Imperial Army . All military personnel of the GAR were required to swear allegiance to the new government in order to remain on active duty and those that refused were branded as deserters and traitors after which they were hunted down and executed . During the Galactic Civil War , clones of Jango Fett ' s lineage made up about 1 / 3 of all stormtroopers in the Galactic Empire , but it is not known of how many were left from the Clone Wars by the start of the Galactic Civil War . Due to the influx of non - Fett clones and regular humans into the army , the Fett clones , such as Commander Cody , viewed the Stormtrooper Corps as an embarrassment to the legacy of the Grand Army of the Republic . Organization . Headquarters . The GAR and the entire Republic Military were constitutionally re - established after the Galactic Senate granted Supreme Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers during the Separatist Crisis , giving him the right to create a Republic army . The GAR was thus ultimately led by the Supreme Chancellor , who held the military titles of Supreme Commander and Commander - in - Chief . The GAR and the rest of the Republic Military was administered through the Department of Defense . Other executive bodies with authority over the Grand Army included the War Council Advisory Panel . Legislative oversight of the GAR was provided by the Galactic Senate ' s Military Oversight Committee . The senior military body in command of the Grand Army and the Republic Navy was Republic High Command , led by the Chief of Defense Staff . GAR Headquarters , the central command for the Grand Army , was based at Coruscant Command HQ . Administration . Command HQ maintained a number of branches to administrate the Grand Army . One of these was the Republic Defense Procurement office , which was in permanent contact with the GAR ' s field logistics battalion s . Research and development into new technologies was carried out by the Army Weapons Research Department . One particularly visible branch of the GAR was Homeworld Security Command , responsible for the security of the capital planet of Coruscant . Homeworld Security controlled the Coruscant Guard , whose distinctive , red - armored clone shock troopers had broad discretionary powers to stop and search Republic citizens . When the Declaration of a New Order established the Galactic Empire , clone shock troopers were stationed in the Senate Building and Republic Executive Building to intimidate the Senate into ensuring a smooth transition of government . A number of GAR facilities were constructed by Kaminoan droid s , especially during the Decimator campaign . Tactical organization . 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 . The rate of casualties greatly reduced the Grand Army ' s numbers throughout the Clone Wars . Prior to the Battle of Coruscant , many of the original Kamino clone troopers were dead or unable to continue fighting . However , the Republic military enhancement bill — passed by a majority vote in the Galactic Senate midway through the war — authorized the funding of five million additional clone troopers . During the waning days of the Clone Wars , millions of Spaarti - grown clones were deployed to supplement their Kaminoan - created counterparts . Equipment . Rifles Pistols Repeating blasters Melee weapons Explosive Projectile launchers Flameththrowers Behind the scenes . The GAR is the second ' grand army ' in the prequels . The first one was the Gungan Grand Army in " The Phantom Menace " . In the Expanded Universe the terminology for Grand Army is similar to that of the , as Karen Traviss , who wrote multiple books about the GAR , is British . Numbers . When Obi - Wan Kenobi went to Kamino in " " , the Kaminoan prime minister , Lama Su , informed him that 200 , 000 troops ( sometimes refered to as units ) were ready for deployment and a million more on were on the way . So , The Grand Army would have consisted of 200 , 000 clones , increasing in number quickly to 1 , 200 , 000 , a figure also accurate according to " Shatterpoint " ( written by Matthew Stover ) . Six months after the Battle of Geonosis that amount of troops would be reached by the cloners . In " Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic " and the novel " " ( both written by Karen Traviss , with Ryan Kaufman as co - author on the " Guide … " ) , there were 3 , 000 , 000 clones one year after the Battle of Geonosis . In a later discussion on TheForce . net ' s literature boards , statements were made by Kaufman denying that this was treated as a definitive figure for the total army : Additionally , most stories made since AOTC have shown dozens of battles , during many of which the clones sustained massive losses , casting doubt about arguments that they represented a " small , elite , special operations force " compared with regular battle droids . " The Cestus Deception " states that a million clones have died , and this is only as of 21 BBY , at most a year after the Geonosis invasion . Some fans point to the existence of Spaarti clones , and the massive number of recruits as possible explanations for high troop figures . Recruitment was mentioned in " " and " The New Essential Chronology " , and non - clone forces were seen in " Jedi Trial " . Along with recruiting , one notable Jedi General Rahm Kota had his own serving Militia , as he saw the clones as unfit for battle . Spaarti cloning technology did not become available to the Republic until eight months after the Battle of Muunilinst , however , and the entire need for the clone army arose from the fact that the Republic had no central military organization to organize and carry out a war against the Separatist forces . From sources like " " and " Nomad " , and even through various " " comics and the novels " Labyrinth of Evil " and " Jedi Trial " , there are several instances before and after the Battle of Geonosis showing non - clone soldiers serving as the majority of forces in military conflicts and being actively recruited by various military organizations . The reliability and quality of mercenaries and bounty hunters would not be high , and having large numbers of non - clone troops available from the outset of the war would have eliminated the need for a clone army and ended / prevented the controversy over the Military Creation Act . It should also be stated that the sources that depict non - clone forces prior to Geonosis are all referring to small - scale conflicts and minor battles . Additionally , the non - clone military forces in the Battle of Praesitlyn in " Jedi Trial " were largely non - Republic volunteer forces . The Sons and Daughters of Freedom volunteers group , which contained 50 , 000 infantry troops and thousands more serving as armored unit and starship crew members , had its number of active members reduced to fewer than 2 , 000 operatives by the end of the battle . Moreover , the non - clone Praesitlyn Defense Force is entirely wiped out by the droid invasion force , with its own commander stating that non - clones are far less capable at combating battle droids . Likewise , while the Republic force sent to Praesitlyn consisted of only 20 , 000 clones , as well as additional non - clones , the only non - clones described in the novel are member of either the command staff , starship crews , or support personnel . When that force faced off against the Separatist force of over one million droids , the clones took extremely heavy casualties and would have lost the battle had it not been for two successful suicide missions undertaken by the commanding Jedi General against the Separatist leadership . Most of the initial clones would go on to fight in the Battle of Geonosis , with 192 , 000 clone troopers deployed on the battlefield there ( " Star Wars : Complete Locations " , p . 88 ) , and an unknown number serving as crew aboard the twelve " Acclamator " - class assault ships that landed troops on the surface or the " thousands " of Republic ships descending upon the grounded Confederate fleet ( " Attack of the Clones " novel ) . The ground troops suffered a large number of casualties ; reports on the ships arriving at the medical facilities stationed at Ord Mantell listed 12 , 000 in need of triage , 8 , 000 walking wounded , and 72 , 000 combat - fit troops ( " " ) . General Grievous personally killed " entire clone trooper companies " or at least 288 troopers plus officers according to " " . The 100 , 000 missing troops in the Ord Mantell report indicates either the use of multiple bases , that 100 , 000 was considered an appropriate garrison force ( since one was established after the destruction of the Geonosis foundries in " Star Wars : Complete Locations " ) , or that the Grand Army suffered over 50 % casualties in its first victory . The Revised Core Rulebook states that the Republic immediately ordered 1 , 000 more " Acclamator " s , indicating an army of at least 16 million troops , though whether they were intended for use by clones or non - clones is still in contention . Additionally , Traviss ' s own " Triple Zero " states that ( at least up to that point of the war ) all " Acclamator " s are fully crewed by clones ; combined with the twelve " Acclamator " s present at Geonosis , that would mean that around 713 , 000 clones ( or 23 % the entire fighting force of the Republic ) were tied up as largely noncombatant ship crews . " Labyrinth of Evil " describes clones being an omnipresent force on Coruscant , acting as security and anti - terrorism forces . " " also states that clone troopers are an " ubiquitous " presence on Coruscant and other worlds . The Sector Governance Decree , individual governors were assigned to each and every planet in the Republic with regiments for their " protection . " ( ) . These actions were occurring at a time when the Republic forces were stretched thin and to the point of being pushed out of system after system ( " Revenge of the Sith " novel ) as well as conducting the lengthy Outer Rim Sieges ( " Star Wars : Clone Wars " , " Revenge of the Sith " ) . It is not surprising that Lama Su stated that all clones take this long in " Attack of the Clones " , as the Kaminoans were businesspeople , and they were known to boast that their advanced model clones were the same as the stock units , just renamed to encourage higher sales ( " " ) . The largest figure given for the Grand Army , so far , was millions of clone divisions , which were undergoing intense combat evaluation at the start of the war . This information was stated in " " ( written by Simon Beecroft and Curtis Saxton ) , a book dealing directly with the worlds presented in the film . It was later restated in " " , which gathered information from the previous three " Inside … " books , as well as new pieces of information . As to the disparity with the numbers of battle droids , the short story , " Odds " , suggested that the CIS only had hundreds of millions of battle droids , with the larger figures being chalked up to propaganda on the part of Palpatine . This directly contradicts the article " The Story of General Grievous : Lord of War " , which stated that Grievous commanded several quintillion droids . Any Republic propaganda dedicated towards its own people would have had little impact on the enemy ' s supreme commander , who has actual access to his own troops . On the other hand , the numbers given in " The Story of General Grievous : Lord of War " are somehow flawed by the huge disparity between the number of its various mechanized war machines ( battle droids , " Vulture " droids , tri - fighters , tank droids , " Hailfire " droids , etc . ) , said to be only in the billions , and the quintillions that Grievous commanded . Standard battle droids are produced much quicker and are more dispensable than droid vehicles , however , and the " quintillions of battle droids " could also include CIS droids not used in battle ( such as OOM pilot battle droids ) . Also on Star Wars : the Clone Wars - " Ambush " , Count Dooku stated to King Katuunko " Our droid armies outnumber the Republic clones 100 to one " , which , if taken literally , would put the numbers of Clones in the quadrillions . However although in most ( if not all ) major ground battles seen in the Clone Wars series the CIS outnumbers the Republic significantly , it is interesting to note that there is almost always an even number of Republic and CIS capital ships pitted against each other . Although this could be partly explained by the fact the Munificent - class ships ( Which are the main ships used by the CIS in the show . ) carried 15 times the number of troops as Venators . This still leaves a huge number of droid ships that are not seen in use against the Republic ( which goes against the standard CIS tactic of overwhelming numbers ) . " " also noted that , because of millions of Separatist warships being locked up in battles with Republic fleets , only a few thousand frigates and destroyers could assault the galactic capital towards the end of the war , accompanied by dozens of battleships . The " Revenge of the Sith " novelization states ( from the out - of - universe perspective of the narrator ) that the CIS had pursued the war to that point through sheer force of numbers , with its droids outnumbering the clones , and even implies that the Confederacy was actually winning at several points . With the Dorling Kindersley line of books ( which first mentioned specific droid numbers ) , being written from an out - of - universe perspective , high droid numbers would have been stated matter - of - factly , and any deception would have been noted ( as it was with the mention of " Invisible Hand " trading places with its sister - ships , in DK ' s " ROTS : ICS " ) . It should also be borne in mind that a battle droid is not directly equivalent to a clone trooper ; standard B1 battle droids were cheap , expendable units , often used for foot patrol in civilian areas . They were typically deployed for combat in massed units that lacked the initiative and versatility of real soldiers , relying instead on sheer numbers to overwhelm opposition , although elite droids like B2 super battle droids and droidekas were both numerous and relatively intelligent . " Odds " also depicts extensive sabotage of droid production lines . According to the story , the weakened droids are significantly easier for the clones to destroy , although clones have been shown being gunned down with similar ease . However , it is doubtful that the Republic managed to sabotage " all " major droid foundries . Additionally , from the " Journal of the 501st " , it seems even elite units held a negative view of relatively small odds : The statement that only a few dozen ships were seen on - screen in the " " cartoon bears little meaning , as many battles in " Star Wars " are often fleshed out in different sources . The same series also showed hundreds of " Providence " - class carrier / destroyers in the Battle of Coruscant , yet some people treat this as unreliable . Another possibility is that when Lama Su mentioned that there were 200 , 000 clone troopers ready for deployment , with a million more on the way , he could have been referring to only those troopers being trained in Tipoca City , although this assumption conflicts with Obi - Wan Kenobi ' s statements during the Battle of Kamino : One last solution is to return to the vague term " unit " which Lama Su mentioned . If a " unit " were to be referring to one of the battalions of 576 troopers ( seen on Coruscant ) , then 200 , 000 of these would render 115 , 200 , 000 clones and the 1 , 000 , 000 others spoken of as 576 , 000 , 000 . This grand total of 691 , 200 , 000 would be far more suitable for the core of a galactic army . Furthermore , if a " unit " refers to a real - life division of 15 , 000 men , the 1 , 200 , 000 units would equal a force of 18 , 000 , 000 , 000 clones , a truly " grand " army , suitable for defeating the huge numbers of droids under the Confederacy . However , the actual number of clone soldiers which can be seen standing in each formation at the end of Attack of the Clones amounts to 624 ( 26 per column and 24 per row ) , showing a disparity with the numbers presented in the Guide to the Grand Army . If a unit indeed amounts to one battalion , this would mean that the grand total of clones was 1 , 728 , 000 , 000 , considering the 3 million units that many sources state , and counting a unit as a battalion of 576 clones . This is reasonable since the Kaminoans referred to the Clones as both " units " and " Battalions . " Which could possibly imply that both terms are merely two different ways of stating 576 man units / battalions . It seems logical that the Kaminoans would have their smallest available package of troops be made up of several hundred men . Since Cloning was a 10 year long process and ( Since the training and feeding would also have to be taken into account . ) an expensive one . It would make no sense that anyone would want to buy a couple of men and have to wait for 10 years when they could come by ten times as many droids for a fraction of the cost , and with a wait of perhaps a week at the most . Furthermore , it should be noted that all planetary and judicial forces loyal to the Republic were folded into the Grand Army , allowing the Republic , which enjoyed a large population advantage over the CIS to make up for the number of battle droids with possibly hundreds of trillions of organic , non - clone soldiers in all - out combat . However , conscription of civilians is implied to have not taken place in a statement by Chancellor Palpatine , due to potential political consequences . Though this implication is contradicted in " The New Essential Chronology " by the following statement : Thus is it is most likely that the Grand Army was combination of clones , draftees , and troops from local planetary armies . In addition , the Confederate battleship " Malevolence " was known to have made at least fourteen attacks , of which at least two occurred against three ship task forces . Assuming that the other twelve were assaults on single ships , which seems unlikely , and that the ships were Venator Star Destroyers , which would fit with their prominence in this era and the relative importance of the Malevolence , there must have been at least 126 , 000 clone casualties in crews alone . If these vessels were fully loaded , the casualty count rises to 180 , 000 , over a tenth of the supposed number of combat ready clones . As the chief concern over the " Malevolence " was its ability to destroy the ships without any indication of its nature and not the casualties , this would seem to indicate a much larger clone army than stated in certain sources . In " Attack of The Clones " , it is stated that there are too many clones for the droids to combat . This is supported by an estimate given that , at the beginning of the War , the casualty ratio for members of the CIS versus the GAR is 20 to 1 . Since there are supposed to be around 3 million droids present at the battle , and approximately 200 , 000 clones , the clone army there would have , by that estimate , easily been able to handle the droid army with ease . However , this comment was made by Count Dooku , replying to Nute Gunray ' s suggestion to " send all available droids into battle . " Dooku desired a long , difficult war . Dooku needed the war to facilitate his rise to power with Palpatine . In , an order is given to destroy the Droid Core Ships , as " each one houses enough firepower to threaten an entire planet . " A similar description is given through Obi - Wan ' s thoughts in the novelization Episode II . The CIS forces had a fair chance of holding out against the Republic longer , which may have led to a shortage in troops later in the war . It should be noted that 1 million planets were contested in the war , so with 1 million troopers per world , the army would need to be 1 trillion strong .