Republic Military

It is clear from AOTC that, up until the clone army, the Republic did not have an army to speek of. But it seems like that they would have to have had a navy. I dont see how they could have kept something as big and far-flung as the Republic together without a space navy. There is evidence of this in TPM, the crew of the Republic cruiser wore some type of military uniform, which I would assume was that of the Republic Navy. Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

This is a good poitn, i personally have no idea. I always have just thought that the crew of the Republic Cruiser were just that - crew.

I have never really thought if they were military or a private firm contracted to the Republic

 

They didn't have a military fleet.
The ship at the beginning of Menace is a diplomatic shuttle (painted red for diplomacy.) The crew is wearing a uniform, this seems only reasonable, there should be such a dress code for such an important post. The evidence of a uniform doesn't indicate that it was a military post.

Look at our own world, Mailmen wear uniforms, that doesn't mean they are in the armed forces.

Before the Clone Wars, there was no military force for the Republic. A planet could have a private armed force, and the Jedi acted as peace keepers in disputes, but there was no Army or Navy.

-Seldon

 

...what's been bugging me about the republic's navy is this... they're losing a galactic war, the republic is crumbling, their capital has been invaded, and yet there isn't a single ship in that battle that isn't a Venator...

I mean, what did they do, decide their new star destroyers were better, and just melt down the rest for spare parts??
when you're losing a war like that, and your capital's been invaded, one would think you'd throw every ship you've got into the battle, old, new, whatever, yet they seem to have decided, only those fancy new Venators... if that's not enough, we lose the war, anything's better than flying a ship into battle that isn't shiney anymore...


..It seems a little wasteful, I mean everytime a new ship comes along, they completly scrap the old designs, I mean you'd think when they invaded geonosis they'd take some kind of support craft with them, anything with a turbo laser, just so they wouldn't risk the lose of the entire jedi order, yet all they bother taking with them is their fancy new stardestroyers..
..I mean, suppose their shiney new clones were terible pilots, and the star destroyers all get picked off in orbit of geonosis, then what are they left with?? nothing, cuz the republic is too cool to bring it's old ships along

 

You make a really good point. If your in a desperate situation, I dont see why they didnt have a whole bunch of ships in there.Yu'd think that not only would the clone navy be fighting, but also any ships from the private armies of the surrounding systems. I also dont get why the republic only has one type of battleship. The sepratists have more of a variety, which IMO, makes more sense.

 

Three words: Planetary Defense Fleets

 

Lt. Dannl Faytoni, anyone?

 

There were other ship involved, including the Victory class SD. However, we only see a small portion of the battle. It surrounded the entire planet, along with seperate battles taking place higher up in orbit than the bit we see. Truly massive ships would have been involved there since they probably couldn't get any closer to Courascant due to its gravity well. The Republic had Mandator II class Star Dreadnaughts in battle, we just didn't see them. I would imagine that Obi-Wan and Anakin had Mandator IIs in their fleet but had to leave them in a higher orbit. I would have killed to see one. I imagine they looked similar to the Executor, but not quite so menacing.

 

The Republic had a fleet 4,000 years before TPM, so it would only make sense that they had one before the Separatists started messing stuff up.

Also, the way I see it, there's no way the Republic could've amassed a huge fleet to fight the Separatists on so many fronts in the course of 3 years. They had to have had these ship designs and at least some vessels already in service prior to Geonosis, and maybe even Naboo.

 

Some planets have militaries and probably hopped into the action when the clone wars started.