Company
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A company was a military ground infantry unit, normally comprised of a relatively small force of troops.
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[edit] Grand Army of the Republic
In the Grand Army of the Republic, a normal company of clone troopers consisted of four platoons, totaling 144 soldiers, led by a Captain. Four such companies formed a standard battalion. Among the clone commando forces of the Special Operations Brigade, however, a company contained 100 commandos, organized in 5 troops, and five companies formed a Commando Group.
[edit] Galactic Empire
Once the Grand Army of the Republic had been reorganized into the Imperial Army, the company of four platoons remained standard, but companies dedicated to specialized roles were now organized differently, with different numbers of troops. In addition to the four combat platoons, each company was equipped with a dedicated detail of command and support personnel. This made the company the smallest type of unit which could operate autonomously of its parent formation for any extended period of time. In theory, a company could be dropped from orbit with supplies for six weeks of independent operations, and the support personnel could keep the unit fighting indefinitely, until the last blaster-packs were expended: in practice, standard deployment was closer to two weeks, and the company could be maintained fully combat-ready for perhaps a month.
The different types of companies in the Imperial Army were organized as follows:
- Line Company - 156 troops, in four line platoons of 38 men.
- Heavy Weapons Company - between 152 and 170 troopers, in two line platoons of 38 men and two heavy weapons platoons of varying size. The troopers in the line platoons of heavy weapons companies were normally armed with light repeating blasters rather than standard blaster rifles, and one man in each platoon sometimes carried a medium repeating blaster.
- Repulsorlift Company - 188 troops and 31 repulsorlift vehicles, in two line platoons of 38 men and two repulsorlift platoons of 56 men and 11 combat vehicles, plus a command vehicle and eight support vehicles.
- Attack Armor Company (16 heavy tanks) - three tank platoons of 5 tanks and one command tank, plus one heavy weapons repulsorlift platoon with 9 repulsorlift vehicles, and seven support vehicles distributed among the four platoons.
- Light Attack Armor Company (28 light tanks) - three tank platoons of 9 tanks and one command tank, plus one heavy weapons repulsorlift platoon with 9 repulsorlift vehicles, and seven support vehicles distributed among the four platoons.
- Breakthrough Armor Company - 21 heavy tanks or 37 light tanks, four tank platoons of 5 or 9 tanks each, plus one command tank. A breakthrough company was designed to breach enemy lines and then take out targets beyond the front line; also used for combat operations, during which the support element normally remained at battalion HQ. As a result, breakthrough companies could rarely remain combat-effective for more than three days, and were normally designed for short-term operations.
- Special Missions Company - 136 men in three special missions platoons of 38 men and an augmented scout platoon of 22 scout troopers with their speeder bikes. They could often operate without their support element on short missions, and they could be resupplied directly by orbital drops.
- Scout Troop - 116 troopers and 40 speeder bikes, in four scout platoons of 19 infantry and 10 scout troopers, plus a command speeder and transports for the support element.
- Artillery Battery - 152 gunners in four artillery lines, each with 38 men and four heavy or medium launch tubes, or eight light artillery pieces.
 Line / drop company |
 Assault company |
 Repulsorlift company |
 Attack armor company |
 Breakthrough armor company |
 Special Missions company |
 Scout company |
 Artillery company (battery) |
All Imperial Army companies contained, in addition to the front-line troops, a command and support detail. In all company-strength units except scout troops and artillery batteries, this was always comprised of five officers, 23 non-commissioned personnel, and 118 droids. The officers were the commanding captain, his second-in-command, the company lieutenant, and logistical, technical and medical specialists, also graded as lieutenants. These last three groups were directly responsible for the three component elements of the support detail:
- logistics: eight soldiers, and 88 droids
- technical: eleven soldiers and 22 droids
- medical: four soldiers and 8 droids
Scout troops had a full complement of support personnel, but due their mobile nature, they had only as many droids as they could fit into their repulsorlift transports. Artillery batteries had a smaller support unit of twenty-three personnel, including command officers, and seventy droids.
[edit] Stormtroopers
The Stormtrooper Corps appears to have employed companies of 225 men, as there are references to units of 45 troopers within a company structure (probably five-squad platoons), and to three-company deployments with 540 troopers. Standard stormtrooper battalions, however, are cited as comprising 800 to 820 men, very close to the size of standard line battalions of 810 to 826 men, and it may be that some stormtrooper companies were organized on a four-platoon model, similar to that of comparable Army units.
Under the Empire of the Hand, the stormtrooper company structure seems to have undergone some reorganization: by 22 ABY, Aurek Company in the 501st Legion consisted of just forty troopers, divided directly into numbered squads of four men each. Something similar may have persisted in the revitalized Galactic Empire of the second century ABY, where it seems that squads were still directly subordinate to company command.
[edit] Other
The Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a company was a scourge.
