Saga How large was the Galactic Republic's Starfleet?

Given the recent thread in regards to the size of The Imperial Starfleet, I've been wondering lately about the size of its predecessor, the Republic Starfleet. Although I will admit I am not as technically minded as some of the more veteran members of this forum, I've always been fascinated with the lore and the hints from the movies and series regarding how large both Starfleets were, and admittedly I have studied Naval history to at least a degree... so the subject of how the Imperial and Republic Fleets compared to one another always just lurks in the back of my mind. So now I think it would be prudent to start off with a review of the military assets the Republic Starfleet had over the course of the Clone Wars, as far as Starships are concerned anyway:

•Venator-Class Star Destroyer (Battleship Carrier)
•Victory-Class Star Destroyer *
•Acclamator-Class Assault Ship (Troop Transport)
•Arquitens-Class Light Cruiser
•Consular-class Cruiser (Technically Frigates due to their size and firepower)
•Pelta-Class Frigate

*Most probably the Victory-Class Star Destroyers were introduced very late into the Clone Wars, personally I'd say as late as the start of the Outer Rim Sieges, so they would be relatively rare in comparison to their numbers during the Age of the Empire.

Now for numbers. I won't make it a secret that I've been a supporter for more conservative sizes for the Imperial Starfleet and find the idea of 25,000 Star Destroyers to be overkill when Hyperdrive allows a Starfleet to cover the span of the Galaxy rather quickly. So, likewise, I believe that the Republic Starfleet wasn't that much larger than the Imperial Starfleet, maybe only Larger than it by a few hundred or more on account of having an actual present threat in the form of the Confederacy as opposed to the Imperial Starfleet which had to deal with Smugglers/ Pirates/ Criminal Syndicates/ and small Rebel Cells before the Battle of Yavin. Using visual evidence from ROTS and Clone Wars (By ROTS, I mean the end scene where we witness the construction of the Death Star), it's clear that the Republic Starfleet wasn't manned by Clones exclusively though to compromise between what ROTS and Clone Wars have shown, I think it would be fair to suggest that Clones made up a majority of the Enlisted Ranks, while Non-Clones were more often Officers with only some Non-Clone Enlisted Crew filling roles as Bridge Crew or etc.

I mention the role of the Clones as a majority of the crew on board Starships because this gives us insight as to how many ships the Republic could field given the personnel they had on hand to crew them.

Another thing I think worth considering is studying the standard formations the Republic Fleet employed during the course of the Clone Wars, and taking note of times when the Republic deployed extraordinarily large forces which may hint at a ceiling the Republic has for bringing its weight down on an opposing force (Such moments of massive gatherings of Republic Forces we get a good look at examining include the Battle of Kamino, The Attack on the Republic Navy Strategy Conference, and of course the largest of them all: The Battle of Coruscant itself).

So with that out of the way, how should we begin collecting evidence for how large the Republic Fleet was?

 

6 ships.

Cause it seems people have trouble comprehending large numbers

 

Oh post-episode 1 and post battle of Malastare Narrows you might be right on target...

 

Well the old republic didn't have a military before AOC......so it would of been 0.

Hence why it failed.

Dictators are always over compensating.....it's part and parcel of being a dictator.

 

I think both legends and canon have stories to contradict this.... The Old Republic had a small force of Judicials (We see them in the beginning of Episode 1) that had their own micro fleet. That served as the peacekeeping force alongside the Jedi for a great length of time before the clone army. I believe most non human Republic Officers during the clone wars served in the Judicial's ranks (And the Judicials did see plenty of combat and seemed to tend to take heavy casualties).

The Consular-Class Cruiser that we see the Republic navy use are armed versions of Judicial Frigates.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Judicial_Department

And in all practicality. I definitely believe the Republic's Navy during the Clone Wars was at least double the size if not more of the Future Imperial Navy. As it was a War Time Government and Military (You build up your military during war). As we saw in the clone wars this pretty much bankrupted the Republic though.

 

I would not take the fact of the republic being at war to imply that it is bigger than the imperial navy.

Lot of dictatorships a inflated military even in peace time to "stimulate" the economy.
Just look at north Korea military first doctrine or Hitler's rearmament program plus the myriad other tin pot dictators, especially the ones in eastern Europe.

You basically use the military to spur manufacturing jobs ( they need guns and uniforms right?), suck up all the young unemployed men in conscription who could be the greatest internal threat if they become disfrabchised and as a bonus you have a nice strong state tool to crush opposition.

 

I'm gonna compare this to the great case of the United States, who I consider us a very militaristic country. In our last great war, of World War 2 we went from 790 to 6,768 warships. And now we have roughly 430 warships in our fleet.

Yes the Fascist and Communist dictatorships did rearm their economies...But those were all small in comparison to a galaxy wide empire. Only The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany actually ended up using those military economies for grand expansion and it ended backfiring on them. Bringing back the imperial argument, it's not about the number of ships it's how you use them.

 

Actually this is a good question, We know that the Clone Trooper project was done under very tight secrecy. But in AOTC we see a large number of ships ready to fight.

Was there a massive ship building project as well?

 

Secretly, yes

And the Republic did have a small security/policing force known as The Judicials prior to the clone wars who had a very small cruiser fleet.

 

Good question I always kind of wondered that myself.

 

I would say it must be pretty big. It looks like both the Galactic Republic and Confederacy possess vast fleets of capital ships. With the Jedi giving the Republic an edge. It would appear that the Republic have committed to large Star Destroyers (Venators) by the time of ROTS.

Of course, the size of either fleet would pale in comparison to the Imperial Starfleet. After ROTS, it would appear that the Galactic Republic, now the Galactic Empire, starts to rapidly expand its navy. Behold the might of the Imperial Navy. Keeping space clear, for a safe and secure society!

 

But the Judicials would have been civilian. Police, but civilians, right? And you had Planetary Defense Forces

 

Almost certainly bigger than 12 ships.

 

Around a tenth of the Imperial Navy. I am basing this to WEG Imperial Sourcebook which states this:

So the Imperial Navy is stated to be 25000 ISDs strong and then average sector group contains 24 of such vessels along with the default 1600 other combat ships and 800 support ships. Plus 700 more in optional assets like Assault - and Bombardment fleets. With just the Imperial class equipped SGs it means that there will be at least 1042 SGs which means the Imperial Navy will range from 1667200 to 2396600 warships and 833600 support ships. But the WEG Imperial Sourcebook also states there to be thousands of SGs:

So at least 2000 Sector Groups making the Imperial Navy 4800000 to 6200000 ships strong. With the strict maximum interpretation of thousands (9000), there'll be 21600000 to 27900000 ships in the Imperial Navy. And then there is the possibility of thousands meaning tens of thousands, etc... so you can extrapolate estimates accordingly.
So with a strict interpretation of at minimum 2000 and at maximum 9000 SGs in Imperial Navy, and Republic Navy being a tenth of its size, it means Republic Navy was in size from anywhere between half a million to around two and a half million ships.
Also there is this piece of information:

Ships in the time of WW2 were much less technologically advanced and as such cost much less per ship to build than ships of today. It ain't the steel that's expensive, it's the electronics, technological systems, etc... that make up the vast majority of costs in today's vessels.

 

I agree thats a pretty good assesment.