Advanced Recon Commandos, also known as ARC troopers, were an elite variant of the clone troopers that served the Der'kal Empire and later the Clone Rebellion.
Rank system
Though ARC troopers most commonly worked alone and rarely had troops directly under their command, they generally held high ranks and authority over standard clone troopers. Alpha and Null class ARCs always maintained the officer color scheme of the Phase I clone trooper armor, shown below.
About ranks
- ARC commander: Although some ARC trooper captains were promoted to the rank of commander and wore yellow ARC trooper armor, most of the officers that were labeled as "ARC Commander" were not originally Alpha-class ARC troopers. These ARC commanders were regular clone officer commanders that were specially trained by Alpha-17 to instill more independence and aggressiveness, and to think outside the box.
- ARC captain: These ARCs had authority over subordinate ARCs, commandos, and standard clone soldiers. The few times that squads of ARC troopers worked together, an ARC captain was usually in charge, serving under a Der'kal General.
- ARC lieutenant: This was the first and most common ARC rank. Lieutenant ARC troopers fought in various battles.
- ARC sergeant: The only known ARC sergeant was the highly independent Null ARC Trooper N-12 A'den. Despite his low rank, as an ARC trooper N-12 had a great deal of autonomy as he worked in Clone Intelligence.
ARC trooper variants
- ARC heavy gunners used weapons that caused more damage than the usual DC-15A blaster rifle and DC-15S blaster.
- ARC trooper pilots are Advanced Recon Commandos that are pilots; they either protect ARCs or shuttle them places.