A few years ago the Clone Defence Forces began devolving Category B army and air force unit on provincial planets to local control. Starting with a pilot on Taragargi this has now resulted in sixteen separate territorial planetary armies and air forces (with more to follow) which handle the bulk of military operations on outlying worlds.
To take for an example, Colum. The Colum Territorial Army now consists of eight regiments of locally drawn or permanently transferred troops and six air force regiments. The Clone Army also maintains a regiment and Red Lizard detachment, the Clone Air Force two regiments also.
These territorial armies and air forces are 50% funded from the central defence budget and 50% from local funds. This has saved the CDF over a billion zarks a year from the defence budget and this saving will rise as start-up costs reduce. Other savings are being found from lower salaries (as living costs away from Cloneworld and a few other capital planets are less) and other running costs.
The next step will be localised procurement. Taragargi has again been chosen as the pilot for this. Three factories have been set up for the production of ammunition, uniforms and engine parts for Taragargi Army vehicles. With lower wages and running costs this is expected to save Taragargi (and hence the CDF) over a million zarks a year.
The money saved has helped the Clones afford the resumption of space ship production. There are issues on the horizon (who funds the replacement of worn out equipment for example) though at the moment the devolution of the Clone Defence Forces is a great success.
