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While the GAR is predominantly made up of clones and the Separatists' of droids, both also have their share of non-clone, non-droid soldiers (e.g. Wookiees, Umbarans, Gungans, Mon Calamari, Quarren, etc.).

With organic lifeforms fighting alongside the Separatists' droids, has the Republic ever deployed droid forces to fight alongside the clones? I don't mean special cases like D-Squad or those re-programmed battle droids used in the mission to the Citadel. Rather, I'm looking for cases where droid forces are fielded en masse by the Republic against the Separatists, though not necessarily as the predominant force present on the Republic side. Has it ever happened before?

Answers from both canon and Legends welcome.

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No, and with good reason

Disregarding the special cases such as those you gave above, I've found no instances of a standing droid fighting force in use by the Republic.

They had no reason to either. Battle droid creation was monopolized by the Separatists, and the Republic already had a fighting force that proved superior in all but numbers. On top of this, most non-clone species we see fighting are in defense of their own homeworlds. It is much more comforting to be fighting alongside fellow living creatures than with robots against robots (and the clones can't be reprogrammed against you either, like in the citadel mission). Also, it would have been much easier to garner support for the clones in the senate war effort than a bunch of soulless droids. As such, the Republic ultimately chose to have faith in the clone army, and so they continued to invest in it.

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  • "it would have been much easier to garner support for the clones in the senate war effort than a bunch of soulless droids" I'm not sure that's true. Personally, I'd be far more willing to send a bunch of "soulless droids" off to war than breed a bunch of human beings for war and force them to fight and die.
    – Null
    May 26, 2017 at 15:45
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    @Null Personal is different from political, and image is everything. When your enemy is essentially a bunch of heartless droids who's only purpose is to invade worlds and kill, it's a frightening prospect. Fighting these terminators with living creatures who you can at least sell to the public as kind, caring, and relatable (which the Clone Wars series later expands upon), helps boosts support for the war effort to stand against those evil monsters. Would you really feel safer if your government decided to produce terminators to fight their battles?
    – Mwr247
    May 26, 2017 at 15:56
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    The Republic Senate did not support any military force until the Separatist droid threat was discovered. The Republic used the clones because they were the only military force available. If the Republic had only droids available to oppose the Separatists then they would have used droids. Support for the war effort was not a problem once the Separatist droids were discovered. If the Republic and Jedi had had a choice between droids and clones I would hope that they'd prefer to use droids rather than human war slaves.
    – Null
    May 26, 2017 at 16:08
  • @Null Not disagreeing on why they used clones at all (especially at the start), but rather why they continued using them over switching to droids. Starting up a droid project would have been a massive additional expenditure, and so it made more sense to just garner support for the clones and overlook the moral issues (and support/PR was needed, because many worlds were actively dropping off to join the Separatists).
    – Mwr247
    May 26, 2017 at 16:37
  • Arguably as well, the clones were bred to want to fight and serve, so they would still choose to if given the choice (exceptions existed of course). Not saying it was right, but I can see it being a loophole in the minds of the senate. Why deprive them of what they wanted out of life, especially when it served their goals as well (again, their rationale)?
    – Mwr247
    May 26, 2017 at 16:39

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