The military force through the clone army, but glosses over its military history before the Separatist Crisis. The Republic was at peace for centuries by the time the prequel trilogy began, and its use of the clone army to fight in the Clone Wars was one of its clearest steps towards its dystopian, autocratic, future as the Galactic Empire. Both of the Star Wars franchise’s continuities explain how the Republic defended itself before the clone army came to be.
The Galactic Republic united the majority of the Star Wars galaxy for generations, though by the events of the Invasion of Naboo, the well-intentioned government had become corrupt. Lobbyists and unethical corporate entities held alarming amounts of political power, with some, like the Trade Federation, being represented in the Galactic Senate alongside star systems. The Republic’s corruption made it especially vulnerable to the Sith Order and their most intelligent (and sinister) Dark Lord, Darth Sidious.
As explained in the Star Wars prequels, the Sith were thought to have been destroyed in a bloody war with the Jedi a thousand years before the Invasion of Naboo. As explained in both canon and Legends, the Republic demilitarized once the war ended, with an extremely barebones military, called the Judicial Forces, and the Jedi Knights defending the Republic when needed throughout the following millennium of peace. When the clone army became the Republic’s formal military, the Jedi Knights led the heroic clones, whose military absorbed the Judicial Forces into their ranks.
The Legends continuity goes into detail regarding the Judicial Forces, explaining that they were formed as a result of the Ruusan Reformation, which formally demilitarized the Republic once the Sith were seemingly gone. Judicial Forces were not well-equipped for warfare, lacking body armor and using ships that were unarmed unless retrofitted with blaster canons. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were ferried to the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo aboard a Judicial Force vessel, the Radiant VII, an ill-fated Consular-class cruiser whose crew were killed by battle-ready Trade Federation forces.
For the Republic’s millennium of peace, its worlds primarily defended themselves through Planetary Security Forces and local militias, though the era’s lack of full-scale wars made the need for military forces rare. These planetary forces, like the Judicial Forces, found themselves working alongside the Jedi and clones during the Clone Wars. The Judicial Forces were more commonly absorbed into the Republic Navy while Planetary Security Forces often fought to defend their respective planets, backed up by the Republic’s Clone Army.
Canon and Legends Star Wars Clone Wars-era material often features non-clone naval officers commanding vessels, such as Gilad Pellaeon and Wullf Yularen, who went on to become of the Imperial military following Palpatine’s coup. Local planetary forces, such as the Rarified Air Cavalry, flew into battle against the CIS with Jedi and clone pilots. In the Republic’s disastrous defeat on Jabiim in Legends, the planet’s human population was divided into Republic and CIS sympathizers, and each ed their respective faction’s interplanetary forces in the campaign. While the Republic military is best-known for its Jedi Knights and clone troopers, it was not entirely defenseless at the start of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
