Cloning vat

The cloning vat is a structure in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge which creates a free clone of any infantry unit that comes from the owning player's barracks. In Red Alert 2, it belongs to the Soviet Union, while in Yuri's Revenge it is given to Yuri's army instead.

Deployment history
Originally, cloning vats were utilized by the Soviet Union during the first iteration of the Third World War in order to bolster their already impressive manpower. However, in the second iteration of the war, Yuri and his plans were exposed, which led him to claim his technologies for his own army and deny the Soviets the ability to deploy them.

A major cloning vats network was located in Sydney, Australia, which he planned to use for cloning the world leaders of the time. However, these were destroyed by Allied forces during Operation: Clones Down Under. This was a significant setback for Yuri, although he did have additional vats at other key locations, such as his main base in Antarctica.

With the major alterations to the timeline caused by Anatoly Cherdenko, cloning technology was no longer seen in field bases during the third iteration of the war. However, the Empire of the Rising Sun reportedly did experiment with cloning technology.

In-game structure
Only one vat may be built by a player at a time. When any infantry unit finishes training at a conventional barracks a duplicate emerges from the vats for no additional cost. A cloning vat cannot be captured.

In Red Alert 2, infantry units can be sent into the cloning vat to be "recycled", giving credits to the owner. The only exceptions are engineers and teleporting units (such as chrono legionnaires). This function is not present in Yuri's Revenge, as dedicated recycling facilities called grinders are available in Yuri's arsenal as well, and can also grind ground vehicles in addition to infantry.

Changelog

 * Red Alert 2 patch 1.004: a complimentary unit no longer appears from a cloning vat if one was healed in a tech hospital.
 * Red Alert 2 patch 1.005: if the barracks was completely surrounded by walls in a way infantry could not emerge, the cost is still refunded to the player, but an infantryman no longer emerges from the cloning vat.
 * Yuri's Revenge retail version 1.000: moved to Yuri's arsenal. Can no longer recycle infantry, as that function was given to the grinder.

Cameos
Alpha cameo:

In order: English, French, German, Korean, Chinese. Top row is the Soviet version, bottom row is the Yuri version.