Stormtrooper Corps

The Stormtrooper Corps, also referred to as the Trooper Corps, was an autonomous military branch operating under the Imperial Army of the Galactic Empire. The Corps was best known for its extensive supply of elite and disciplined stormtroopers trained at academies across the galaxy, as well as its near fanatical devotion to Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious. Regarded as the Empire's chief enforcers, the Corps served to remind the civilian populace of the Empire's military supremacy.
The Stormtrooper Corps could trace its roots to the Grand Army of the Republic—clone troopers who fought for the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars. Although Republic forces were absorbed by the Imperial Military, the original generation was eventually replaced by non-clone human recruits and conscripts. During the Imperial Era, the Corps suppressed Separatist holdouts, occupied worlds, and became embroiled in a galaxy-wide conflict with the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
In the aftermath of the Galactic Civil War, both the training and existence of stormtroopers was prohibited and the Stormtrooper Corps in accorded with the the Galactic Concordance, a formal peace treaty between the Empire and the victorious New Republic that prohibited the mobilization and training of stormtrooper forces, disbanding of the Stormtrooper Corps.
However by the rise of the First Order, a new generation of stormtroopers came to exist under the military junta that recognized neither the treaty nor the Republic's sovereignty.
==History==
===Clone stormtroopers===
Inheriting the military forces of the Grand Army of the Republic, made up of millions of Kaminoan-made clone troopers, the Galactic Empire would immediately possess a large amount of highly trained infantry units, land and air assault vehicles as well as capital ships. These were used to support military excursions against forces opposed to the new Galactic Empire, among them remaining Separatist holdouts such as the one on Desix. Another use for the clones was to enforce the Empire's will in early occupations, missions, and security efforts.
In what clone troopers Ding and Kicker feared would be their future, clones were also dispatched to cleanup former JediDarth Vader (2017) 2 or Separatist sites, including the late Count Dooku's Castle Serenno, whose war chest was extracted by a large operation supervised by a clone company. To Ding and Kicker, such missions were a sign that the clone army was to be phased out: while new recruits would become active soldiers, both feared their future would hold quiet cleanup missions. Finally, elite clone units such as Clone Force 99 and Purge TroopersDarth Vader (2017) 16 were active. The former was tested by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin while the latter was at the disposal of Darth Vader and his Inquisitors.
===Project War-Mantle===
Immediately after the formation of the Empire, Navy and Army officers began actively recruiting ambitious civilians for a new generation of Imperial troopers. This project, code-named War-Mantle, was kept secret from the Imperial Senate. The first conscript troopers were deployed on clandestine operations, including the elimination of the Onderon rebels. Additionally, clone commandos like SP-113,Battlefront: Twilight Company Captain Gregor, and Scorch were tasked with training the first generation of stormtroopers, codenamed TK stormtroopers in a secret facility on the planet Daro. Gregor alleged that one of the reasons clone troopers were to be phased out of the Imperial Army was because they were created to be soldiers loyal to the former Galactic Republic.
To fund this facility as well as the development of the troopers' new experimental armor, Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart, Kamino's new Imperial governor and a trustee of Tarkin started appropriating Senate-approved funds meant for Kamino by exploiting his influence in the Defense Finance Committee. Senator Halle Burtoni of Kamino discovered the transactions but was publicly disgraced by the Empire before she could act on her suspicions and forced to retire to living a private life on Coruscant. With funding for the project secured, all that remained to be done was for the clone army to be permanently decommissioned to give Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine a pretext to move publicly with the Stormtrooper Corps. To that end, Rampart began increasingly interfering with Kaminoan politics, demanding to be notified of all that occurred in the capital and making it known that the Empire considered clones too expensive to maintain. Sensing the danger, Prime Minister Lama Su attempted to organize an evacuation of Kamino's cloning and science personnel, only to be discovered, giving Rampart the pretext he needed to arrest him for treason. With Kamino's political leadership dealt with, Rampart had all remaining Imperial personnel evacuate the planet and ordered an atmospheric bombardment which destroyed the cloning and military facilities.
===Official formation===
The destruction of Kamino's facilities was covered up as the results of a cataclysmic storm; with no survivors left to testify otherwise, the incident became known as "the storm" throughout the Empire. Rampart then moved to the final step on forming the new army and proposed a new legislation, the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill, to the Imperial Senate. According to the Bill, due to the Empire's lack of means to sustain the clone army it was to be decommissioned and replaced with an army of conscripted volunteers, recruited from among the galaxy's civilians to serve their Emperor, even though in secret the Empire had already been training such recruits on Daro for the past year. While the ongoing recruitment was kept secret from the Imperial Senate, former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, who lived in hiding on the planet Thabeska before moving to the moon of Raada a little over a year into Imperial rule, came to know that clones were being phased out in favor of recruits.Ahsoka Even though the Bill was yet to be passed,Star Wars: Dawn of Rebellion: The Visual Guide non-clone recruits saw deployment in the place of clones to Thabeska, Raada, and Desix.
The Bill initially faced significant objections from the Senate and tabled multiple times, much to Palpatine's frustration. During one pre-voting session, Senators Bail Organa of Alderaan and Tynnra Pamlo of Taris publicly spoke against the need to create another army so soon after the end of the last great war, while Riyo Chuchi of Pantora expressed her frustration with the clones' lack of representation in a Bill that would affect them significantly. The bill proved divisive, as corporate Senators such as Gani Riduli of the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Commerce Guild's representative passionately supported it, and the vote was postponed for the next session. Outside the Senate, clone troopers publicly and privately expressed their concerns for the government's decision to decommission them after their service during the war. Others like Slip and Cade were two of Rampart's crew members stationed on his Venator during Kamino's destruction. They attempted to reveal the incident to the Senate, but they were eliminated by a Clone X trooper, Clone X.
Clone X had been dispatched by Rampart to silence them. Slip had, however, managed to notify former Clone Captain Rex, who along with the now rogue Clone Force 99 managed to retrieve the command log from Rampart's Venator and bring it to the Senate during the final voting session. This evidence, along with former Senator Burtoni's testimony proved to be enough to convince the Senate of the Admiral's treason, and caused Vice Chair Mas Amedda to order his arrest. Palpatine then appeared before the Senate and gave a speech in which he expressed his belief that the incident demonstrated the clones' inability to be trusted and their tendency to blindly follow orders; therefore he suggested that a conscript army would be the solution to the problem. With this development, the Senate finally voted for the Bill, and the new army, named "Stormtrooper Corps" by Palpatine himself, was officially formed.
===Rise of the stormtroopers===
Due to the difficulty to immediately halt the military buildup that had began during the Clone Wars, the Corps continued to rely on Republic-era clones for a few years after the Proclamation of the New Order. Nonetheless, the clone stormtroopers' fighting skills ultimately deteriorated due to their accelerated aging process. In response, the Corps continued to accept non-clone recruits into its ranks, with most remaining clones being disbanded four years before the Battle of Yavin. During the earlier years of the Galactic Empire, the Imperial army also deployed Imperial Army troopers on many worlds instead of stormtroopers. As the Empire continued, however, the army upgraded as these soldiers were phased out in favor of more stormtroopers. By the time of the Mimban Campaign, Imperial army soldiers had not been completely phased out and fought alongside stormtroopers, but the army's upgrade to increase stormtroopers had begun.Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide
During the Galactic Civil War, the Corps underwent an accelerated training process to provide more soldiers at a faster rate in order to suit the Empire's needs. Members of the Stormtrooper Corps would see substantial military action on multiple against the Alliance to Restore the Republic and its successor state, the New Republic.Star Wars: Shattered Empire Following the Battle of Jakku in 5 ABY, the defeated remnants of the Empire signed a peace treaty called the Galactic Concordance. One of the terms of the treaty prohibited the mobilization and training of stormtrooper forces.
===Legacy===
The Imperial Remnants retreated to the Unknown Regions where they reconstituted themselves as the First Order. In violation of the Galactic Concordance, the First Order rebuilt the former Imperial military including a new generation of stormtroopers. In 34 ABY, these First Order stormtroopers saw action against the New Republic and the Resistance, a paramilitary organization led by General Leia Organa.
==Training and equipment==
Although their ranks were numerous and possessed some of the finest weaponry, armor and training with much development spearheaded by the Imperial Department of Military Research, stormtroopers were generally less respected as soldiers in comparison to their genetically engineered clone predecessors by the Empire's adversaries and surviving veterans of the Clone Wars. Captain Rex noted the relative inferiority of the new stormtrooper ranks, believing in his subjective opinion that poor training and equipment was partly to blame for the Corps' decrease in operational effectiveness. Nevertheless, stormtroopers were trained to be fiercely loyal to Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine and were reputedly incapable of betraying him. In addition to their allegiance to the Emperor, they loyally followed his Sith apprentice and enforcer, the Sith Lord Darth Vader.Lords of the Sith
According to Imperial records, the Corps never trained a trooper-turned-traitor, but that was not true. When they were not in armor, officers of the Stormtrooper Corps wore black dress tunics, caps, and boots. They also carried code cylinders, rank insignia plaques, and officer's disks that were conform to the standards of the Imperial Navy.Ultimate Star Wars
==Organization and structure==
===Overview===
In the Stormtrooper Corps, one of the smallest units was a squad, which consisted of ten stormtroopers. A platoon was made up of five squads, and a company was made up of four platoons. Higher up, a battalion consisted of four companies, and a regiment had four battalions in it. A legion was made up of four regiments, giving one a total of twelve-thousand eight-hundred stormtroopers.Star Wars Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to a Galaxy Far, Far Away
To outflank an enemy unit, stormtroopers could be organized in a strategy known as Sigma Four. This tactic was once used by Sergeant TX-828 against the bounty hunters of Captivator's crew.Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure
===Leadership===
The Stormtrooper Corps contained a number of field officers in the form of Stormtrooper Commanders. The various Imperial officers of the Empire also displayed commanding authority over stormtroopers. As the head of the Empire,Darth Vader (2020) 40 Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine commanded the loyalty of the Stormtrooper Corps,Star Wars Rebels: Rebels Versus Empire Ultimate Sticker Book whose members were ready to die in his name, even when faced with poor odds.Learn to Draw Star Wars spiral-bound title Due to his status as Palpatine's Sith apprentice and private enforcer, which turned him into the Empire's unofficial Commander-in-Chief, the Sith Lord Darth Vader also had massive authority over the Stormtrooper Corps. Together, Palpatine and Vader commanded the Empire's army of stormtroopers. Vader lacked any kind of formal rank and was simply regarded as a "lord"Doctor Aphra (2016) 35 by stormtroopers or any other Imperial.Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal
Vader had a unique relationship with the Stormtrooper Corps; while Palpatine, as Galactic Emperor, once declared that all of Vader's authority only existed because he allowed it to, the Twi'lek Isval, who confessed to have only heard second- and third-hand tales about the Sith Lord, had heard that the Stormtrooper Corps possessed an almost-religious level of loyalty to Vader. Indeed, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin noticed that Vader and the stormtroopers who supported him had a great rapport.Tarkin First Sergeant Hazram Namir used the blind loyalty stormtroopers showed Vader as a warning; when he saw his fellow rebels' respect for the Rebel Alliance's leadership, the untrusting Namir remarked that Vader's stormtroopers praised the Sith Lord as a hero, just as they were doing with the Alliance officers.
To the rank and file of the Empire, including its stormtroopers and the TIE pilots of the Imperial Navy, Vader was indeed a hero. While the Emperor was tasked with governing the entire galaxy and thus had to rule from a distance,Hidden Empire 5 Vader led their forces from the frontline and repeatedly brought them to victory, which earned him immense respect and admiration from the Empire's rank and file. While other officers might have remained away from active combat in the safety of a capital shipDarth Vader (2017) 15 or base,Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Vader was someone who jumped into battle and then fought on the same level as the Stormtrooper Corps, who watched him fight with a chilling effectiveness. All the same, stormtroopers and other rank and file forces did fear Vader despite their love for the man. Still, that was not unique to the infantry and pilot classes: even the senior figures of the Imperial Officer Corps, who hated Vader and the Commander-in-Chief level authority he held over them, knew to fear the Dark Lord.
Palpatine's remark about Vader's status only existing thanks to his blessing came during the Scourge of Coruscant, in which a number of stormtroopers on Coruscant were ordered to fire on Vader, with Palpatine using it to try and tell Vader that, without his blessing, he had nothing to command. Indeed, Palpatine even ordered Vader's own handpicked death trooper guard to turn on him. Furthermore, Palpatine maintained an order amongst all of Vader's stormtrooper escorts to turn on his apprentice should he need to give the order.Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition Vader himself knew the importance of assembling his own private forces when he wanted to act behind his master's back.Darth Vader (2015) 3 However, various stormtroopers still displayed a great loyalty towards Vader,Darth Vader (2017) 24 with whom they directly fought under in the field and thought of with great reverence. The stormtroopers of Vader's personal 1st Legion possessed a degree of loyalty that was exceptional even amongst the Empire.Thrawn: Alliances
===Units===
*1st Legion
*68th LegionStar Wars: Commander
*501st Legion
*Bardelberan 7 Imperial GarrisonPirate's Price
*Death Star's Imperial Army garrison
*Cloud City Imperial GarrisonStar Wars: Uprising
*Coruscant GuardDarth Vader (2017) 7
*Tempest Force
*Felucia Imperial garrison
*Foot Patrol 7
*Garel Imperial Garrison
*Gigor Imperial garrison
*Imperial Ninety-Seventh Stormtrooper Legion
*JN-093's squadRogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization
*Lothal Imperial Garrison
*Mataou Imperial garrison
*Mantooine Imperial garrisonStar Wars: The Rebel Files
*Naalol Imperial GarrisonAftermath
*Naboo Imperial Garrison
*Obumubo Imperial garrison
*One-Oh-Seventh Stormtrooper Legion
*Plateau City Imperial GarrisonKanan 4
*Scarif DeploymentStar Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide
*Scrim Island Imperial garrisonThrawn
*Team FiveStar Wars (2015) 72
*Winter's Edge stormtrooper garrisonGuardians of the Whills
*Wecacoe Imperial garrisonRogue One - Cassian & K-2SO Special 1
==Stormtrooper specializations==
===Infantry and variants===
*Stormtrooper—The Empire's main enforcer throughout the galaxy. Equipped with E-11 medium blaster rifles and specialized armor made up of over 18 plastoid, composite plates.
:*Artillery stormtrooper—Specialized stormtroopers that specialized in mortar weaponry.
:*Coastal defender stormtrooper— Also known as shoretroopers. Stationed at locations with extensive beaches or seaside facilities such as the top secret Imperial security complex on the tropical planet Scarif and the planet of Niamos.
:*Cold weather assault stormtrooper'''—Better known as Imperial snowtroopers, trained and equipped for operations in arctic environments.
:*Desert stormtrooper—Specialized stormtroopers equipped for desert environments, with unique helmets featuring extra cooling features and a sand filter, along with a survival backpack stocked with extra food and water.
:**Dewback trooper—Sandtroopers that utilized dewbacks as mounts. They utilized flamethrowers.
:*Flametrooper—Flametroopers were Imperial incendiary units equipped with flamethrowers for rooting out entrenched enemy positions.Adventures in Wild Space: The Rescue
:*Forest trooper—Stormtroopers trained to operate in forested environments.Aftermath: Life Debt
:*Heavy Weapons Stormtrooper—Heavy Stormtroopers, also known as Heavy Weapons Stormtroopers were equipped with Z-6 rotary blaster cannons, DLT-19 heavy blaster rifles and heavy armor.Star Wars Battlefront II
:**Heavy SandtrooperStar Wars: Commander
:**Heavy Shoretrooper
:**Heavy Snowtrooper
:*Imperial Heavy Trooper—Specialized stormtroopers equipped with combat armor and electrostaffs.Star Wars: Galactic Defense
:*Imperial shock trooper—High-class stormtroopers pulled from the elite of the Corps and equipped with distinctive armor with red markings. Primarily utilized as elite front-line units and guards for Emperor Palpatine himself.
:*Incinerator trooper'''—Specialized stormtroopers who were equipped with a flamethrower with a backpack and among the most devastating of the Empire's specialized troops.
:*Jumptrooper—Jumptroopers were specially trained soldiers equipped with jetpacks and bubble shields that could be activated for short periods of time. Useful for rapid battlefield maneuvers and flanking enemy positions, Jumptroopers could traverse environmental hazards that would normally tie up regular troops.
:**Arctic Jumptrooper
:**Desert Jumptrooper
:**Forest Jumptrooper
:*Volcanic environment stormtrooper—Stormtroopers equipped with black armor and respiration tubes that were charged with defending Fortress Vader on Mustafar.Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader's Castle 5
:*Magma trooper—Specialized stormtroopers capable of withstanding high temperatures in volcanic environments.
:*Patrol trooper— Stormtroopers that used speeders to patrol and were organized under the scout trooper sub-corps.
:*Range trooper— Specialized stormtroopers that wore heavy armor lined with fur.
:*Riot control stormtrooper—Soldiers equipped with electrostaffs and trained to quell insurrectionist activities.Star Wars: Force Arena
:*Scout trooper—Scout troopers, also known as biker scouts, were the reconnaissance units of the Corps and organized into a sub-corps of their own. Scout troopers were utilized to determine enemy positions, perform hit-and-run attacks and gather intelligence on enemy operations in a combat zone.
:**Stormtrooper sniper—Sniper troopers, also known as Imperial sharpshooters, were specialists pulled from the ranks of the scout troopers and equipped with E-11s sniper rifles.
:*Seatrooper—Imperial troopers trained for operations in aquatic environments.Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks
:*Shadow trooper—Specialized stormtroopers that wore black suits of experimental armor coupled with portable cloaking devices.Star Wars Battlefront
:*Spacetrooper—Specialized stormtroopers equipped with rebreather packs for use in zero oxygen environments.
:*Stormtrooper grenadier—Specialized stormtroopers equipped with grenade launchers.Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions
:*Swamptrooper—Specialized stormtroopers trained for amphibious combat.
:*Wet-weather gear stormtrooper—Specialized stormtroopers that were located on Mimban.
===Elite and experimental units===
*Dark Trooper—Heavily armored experimental units of the Empire that wore pitch-black combat armor.Star Wars: Commander
**Phase II Dark Trooper—A model of Dark trooper used to storm enemy entrenchments or enemy defenses.
*Death trooper—Elite stormtroopersStar Wars: Character Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition who served as bodyguards, enforcers, and commandos active under the death trooper division.
*Purge Trooper—Elite stormtroopers with black armor who specialized in hunting Jedi who survived Order 66.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order One unit personally served Governor Ubrik Adelhard of the Anoat sector.
*Storm Commando'''—Grey-clad units trained to deal with extreme combat scenarios.
*Special Commando Advanced Recon Trooper—Elite stormtroopers deployed in the Imperial MilitaryStar Wars (2015) 19
==Appearances==
===Non-canon appearances===
*Angry Birds Star Wars II 
*LEGO Star Wars: A New Hope DK Reader
*Star Wars Epic Yarns: A New Hope
*Star Wars Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
*Star Wars Epic Yarns: The Empire Strikes Back
* LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
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==Sources==
===Non-canon sources===
*LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure
*The Art of Star Wars: Visions
==Notes and references==
Category:Imperial Army branches