Cloning Cloning was the process of growing a genetic duplicate from an original source . Thirty - two years before the Battle of Yavin , Jedi Master Sifo - Dyas commissioned the Kaminoan scientist s to create an army of clone trooper s for the Galactic Republic . Within a decade , the Republic mobilized the clone army in response to the secessionist movement of the Confederacy of Independent Systems , resulting in the outbreak of the Clone Wars . The Kaminoan cloning production continued to engineer clones for the Republic throughout the conflict . With the end of the war , the clones initially served the Republic ' s successor government , the Galactic Empire , as stormtrooper s . In time the Empire ceased its cloning production , decommissioned the clones , and turned to the recruitment of regular human s . Overview . Cloning was the scientific procedure of growing a clone from the genetic template of a living organism . The original source ' s genetic code could be altered through modifications to the cloning process for various purposes , including growth acceleration and greater docility . Without alterations to the genome , a clone would be the exact duplicate of its template at the genetic level . History . The science of cloning was critical to the creation of the Kaminoan clone army in the waning years of the Galactic Republic . Prior to the rise of the Galactic Empire , the Kaminoan cloners were commissioned by Jedi Master Sifo - Dyas to engineer an army of clone soldier s for the Republic . However , Sifo - Dyas died shortly thereafter , allowing for the Sith to secretly take over the clone project . As the Kaminoans ' new benefactors , the Sith provided them with the means to create and modify the clone army — specifically a template , the human bounty hunter Jango Fett whose genetic code served as the baseline for the clone trooper s ; and a control chip to ensure the clones ' absolute obedience in the event of the activation of Clone Protocol 66 . In addition to behavioral modification , the Kaminoans altered Fett ' s genotype to meet the deadline for the completion of the first generation of battle - ready units . As a result , the clones were designed to age at twice the rate of regular humans , and therefore grown to maturity in one decade . Ten years after Sifo - Dyas ' death , the Kaminoan cloning technology successfully produced 200 , 000 soldiers and an additional million units close to completion . By then the Jedi Order became aware of the army ' s existence , as well as Sifo - Dyas ' role in its inception . With the galaxy on the verge of civil war as a result of the secessionist movement of the Confederacy of Independent Systems , the Republic mobilized the clone troopers against the newly - built Separatist Droid Army . Throughout the Clone Wars , clone troopers were the backbone of the Grand Army of the Republic . However , the option of cloning supplementary units was a controversial politicial issue in the Galactic Senate of the Republic . While Senator Padmé Amidala and other like - minded politicians favored diplomacy as a means to end the conflict , others advocated for the escalation of war — including Halle Burtoni whose homeworld , the extragalactic planet Kamino , gained representation in the Senate as a result of her people ' s role in the creation of the clone army . Seeking to promote the economic interests of Kamino , Burtoni successfully proposed an increase in the clone trooper production . In the aftermath of the Clone Wars , the surviving clone troopers became the first stormtrooper s of the Galactic Empire . In time the clones were decommissioned due to their accelerated aging process . Rather than continuing to rely on the Kaminoan cloning production , the stormtrooper ranks were opened to birth - born human recruits . By the time of the cold war , the Force warrior Kylo Ren — having grown disillusioned with the latest generation of stormtroopers — contemplated the possibility of using the cloning process to create a more capable army for the First Order .