The Simple Reason Why the Clone Army Was So Small

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Most estimates indicate that the Grand Army of the Republic was many times smaller than the Separatist Droid Army. Count Dooku claims the droids had the clones outnumbered 100:1. Today we take a look at why these numbers aren't actually that surprising given the way the Galactic Republic fights wars.

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[GenerationTech]

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[Zombotron]

In canon, the 1, 200, 000 clone number was just at Tipoca city and millions more were made across Kamino in other facilities.

[TheWarmachine]

To be fair, Kamino is only one planet and they had spent a decade growing 200, 000 units who are ready for battle with a million more well on the way.

[TheWarmachine]

5:52 *when Jedi lead them to an open battlefield with no cover*
Clone Commandos: "And we took it personally."

[Captain_Insano_nomercy]

Karen gets a bad rap, but as a military veteran myself I admire how accurately she captured the experience of actual soldiers. The jargon, the brotherhood, the disassociation was all well done

[robbybeckmeyer]

All those crazy weapons on Umbara were probably part of a planetary defense force before the war, just as a reminder of how powerful a PDF could be

[hypermaeonyx]

Short answer: There was literally only one planet making clones

[alexhoffmeister]

When Obiwan visited Kamino, they told him that there were 200, 000 units ready with a million more well on the way. Many believe that meant there were 1.2 million clones. This however isn’t true because a “unit” refers to a regiment of 2304 clones. This means at the start of the clone wars there were 460, 800, 000 clones ready with 2, 304, 000, 000 more on the way.

[neofulcrum]

“A day won’t come when the droid army can’t outfight without a ten to one advantage”-Clone Commander Bly

[taitano]

So, kinda like how the original US Army was intended to operate. Using state militias, which later evolved into the National Guard. That system is fairly inefficient and was put aside for a national army very quickly.

I'm too busy at the moment to properly research it, so if someone knows if I'm wrong about what the state militias became, other than the obvious folding into the national force, let me know. I'll edit this later. With a correction if no one offers one in the meantime.

[ryanabcdef]

I always understood that the Army was actually 1 to 10 million strong but the bulk of clone forces were stationed aboard venators within the navy. If every or even most republic venators were manned by clones and there were at least 1000 venators at the battle of coruscant alone with a crew of 7, 400 then that's 7.4 million possible clones. Theres no telling how many total venators the republic operated. These crews could have also accounted for garrison forces as well leaving even more possibility of 10 million clones in the army actually doing the fighting.

[MrGeorocks]

I'd imagine supporting such a large force over such vast distances limited the amount of people and equipment you could afford to support without badly affecting your economy.

[Delta-]

7:53 A Republic commando players worst nightmare.

[imjashingyou]

I always took the word unit over personnel or soldiers to be specific. They had 200, 000 platoons at the ready. About 8 million clones with another 40 million well on the way in the short term.

[dannyd.]

I’ve always assumed that a, “unit” meant an individual clone, but it is an interesting idea to think it could mean a company or battalion. It’s also interesting to consider the planet defense forces. You see it on Umbara on the Separatist planets, but to think of it on Republic planets is fascinating when thinking of the Clone Wars in general.

[buddyjVCO]

This video when talking about the Military that Earth has, reminds me you did the series on "What if each faction found Earth in the Unknown Region."

[calvinmatthews]

Seriously, if we ever get a new trilogy or tv series in a different era, I hope they portray both main factions as somewhat believable. Both with solider numbers and tactics. Also, thanks Alan for calling out these scammer replies plaguing YouTube, that they're not doing anything about.

[cinicallyClerical]

The Separatists likely also had planetary defense forces and militias, because we learn Mina Bontary's husband died fighting the clones.

[vernai_]

I always figured that a "unit" meant some number greater than a single trooper. Probably something along the lines of like 64 troopers per unit. This would make more sense as far as scale of the army as well as in business dealings. Cause when selling a lot of small products in bulk you tend to label it as a package or bundle deal.

[ItsAVolcano]

Fair warning to anyone looking up Travis Legends books, "negative attitude" towards the Jedi really undersells it. She was essentially the Warren Ellis of Star Wars Legends, producing amazing content as long as she didn't have to write for the most common character type in the genre (superheroes for Ellis and Jedi for Travis).