Enemy soldiers

Every Metal Gear game has its own army of enemy soldiers.

Outer Heaven soldiers
See Outer Heaven (nation)

The soldiers of Outer Heaven were the main forces of Big Boss's mercenary nation and ideology. Divisions included Air Troopers (soldiers equipped with jetpacks to guard areas on top of buildings), Red Guards, Blue Guards and regular servicemen.

After the events of Operation Intrude N313, most of the mercenaries had their contracts bought out by the US government. They were later merged with the Army's Force XXI unit in order to form the Next-Generation Special Forces, also known as the Genome Army.

''The soldiers appearance is different in the MSX2 and NES versions of Metal Gear. The regular soldiers, in the MSX2 version, wore standard uniforms. In the NES version, the soldiers had a bandana, and also seemed to be shirtless.''

Zanzibar Land soldiers
See Zanzibar Land

The Zanzibar Land Soldiers were the main forces of the country of Zanzibar Land, established in 1997. Like Outer Heaven, many soldiers were former mercenaries, who had participated in Zanzibar Land's War of Independence. By November 1999, the Zanzibar Land Forces had 30,000 soldiers at its command, which rapidly increased by to 40,000 in the next month (the time of Operation intrude F014). 24,000 of these soldiers were stationed as the security detail within their stronghold. Because of their strong patriotism for their country, they stop what they are doing and stand at attention when the Zanzibar Land national anthem starts playing, a character trait that Solid Snake exploited to get through various soldiers via a recording of the anthem.

After Zanzibar Land's ambitions were thwarted by Solid Snake, the military was presumably left in shambles, after the country's collapse. It is unknown what happened to the remaining soldiers.

Genome Army
Main Article

The Genome Soldiers, officially known as the Next-Generation Special Forces, were a genetically enhanced special forces unit, so called due to the gene therapy they had undergone. Members were injected with so-called "soldier genes," which heightened their senses and skills in combat. Because of this, and much to Solid Snake's dismay, most Genome Soldiers had little to no actual combat experience. It was theorized that the so-called Gulf War Syndrome was partly due to the side effects of Genome Soldier testing.

During the Shadow Moses Incident, the Genome Soldiers served as the main army for the renegade FOXHOUND group, although their seemingly unanimous support of the revolt was partly due the brainwashing of FOXHOUND member Psycho Mantis. Following the defeat of FOXHOUND at the hands of Solid Snake, the surviving soldiers were rounded up and imprisoned for treason, though at least one was able to avoid this fate. Nastasha Romanenko's book: In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth, implies that the real reason why they were imprisoned at Pease AFB was so the Patriots could continue experimenting on them.

Gurlukovich Mercenaries
Main Article

The Gurlukovich Mercenaries were a Russian mercenary unit founded by ex-GRU colonel Sergei Gurlukovich. It consisted of soldiers who had nowhere to go following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and continuously fought for their country's return to power.

Under the command of Sergei, the Gurlukovich Merenaries assisted he and Revolver Ocelot in taking control of the disguised oil tanker during the Tanker Incident. They then resurfaced two years later during the Big Shell Incident, during which time Olga Gurlukovich, who took command of the army following her father's death, leant the army over to the Sons of Liberty to assist them.

It is unknown what happened to the remaining members of the Gurlukovich Mercenaries after Olga's death.



Arsenal Tengu
The Gurlukovich Mercenaries were also trained as Arsenal Tengu Commandos in order to protect the inner sanctums of Arsenal Gear from infiltration and destruction. The Tengu soldiers had masks inside their helmets that can help them breathe in biochemical environments. They could also run faster and were stronger than the normal soldier, due to the artificial tissue they had in their armor.

KGB
Main Article

The KGB served as enemy soldiers during the Virtuous Mission. Major Ocelot personally killed six of them when he tried to capture Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. The other soldiers likely perished when Colonel Volgin launched his nuke at Sokolov's lab.

GRU
Main Article

The GRU served as enemy soldiers during Operation Snake Eater. They were operatives under the command of Colonel Volgin.

Ocelot Unit
The Ocelot Unit were an elite Spetsnaz GRU unit active during the 1960s. Armed with more powerful weapons than the ordinary GRU soldiers, they were very effective at fighting as a team. They were led by none other than Major Ocelot, who would later become Revolver/Liquid Ocelot.

The KGB and the GRU appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

San Hieronymo Unit
See Red Army

The San Hieronymo Unit was a Red Army special forces unit that was deployed to the San Hieronymo Peninsula in order to work on a Soviet Missile Base, but was ultimately abandoned by the Soviet Union, due to both Detente and the SALT talks that both Brezhnev and Nixon were promoting. In 1970, they ended up joining Gene's rebellion so that they could build a nation for soldiers. At least some members of the unit joined Big Boss to put a stop to Gene.



PMC Soldiers
See Private Military Company

By 2014, Private Military Companies were beginning to overtake small armies in terms of firepower and used by larger nations to avoid any political controversy that involves the armed forces of their own. It is also stated that several state armies were being reduced in number due to the effectiveness of the PMC forces. They consisted of "guns-for-hire", which were employed for combat and fought without the thought of countries or ideologies or ethnicity. This was well in tune with the war economy as money was the only thing PMCs fought for. PMCs did not just contain human soldiers, but also utilised technology such as the Gekko, provided by AT Corp.

In 2014, the five largest PMCs on the planet (together rivaling the US Army in numbers and firepower) were owned by a single mother company, Outer Heaven, led by Liquid Ocelot. Logistically, technologically, and tactically advantaged, they were deployed all over the globe with the use of high-end technology on the battlefield, and could come in and out of any conflict with minimal casualties. PMCs were also equipped with gear and weaponry used by the US military itself such as SCAR rifle, M4A1s (at least in earlier renders), Humvees, Strykers and numerous more.



Haven Troopers
Main article

While technically PMC soldiers, Haven Troopers, commonly known as FROGS, served outside of commercial PMCs, acting as Liquid Ocelot's private army. They were an army of elite, all-female soldiers, seen primarily on Liquid's Outer Haven ship. They were occasionally dispatched for specific purposes, such as the retrieval of Naomi Hunter in South America, or to ambush the Rat Patrol in the Middle East.

Peace Sentinels
See Peace Sentinels

The Peace Sentinels were a rogue unit of the CIA created to organize Project: Peace Walker. They were led by CIA Station Chief in Central America, Hot Coldman. In 1973, they were deployed into Costa Rica in order to set up the nuclear weapon "Peace Walker" and launch it as their last nuke for deterrance, and create the perfect deterrant.

The Sentinels came in various varieties: Some as armored soldiers (Kazuhira Miller referred to them as reinforced soldiers), some as CIA Mercs (distinguished by their blue pants, golfer hat, and orange jacket, along with a hunting rifle), as well as soldiers wearing green uniforms and balaclavas. If an alert was triggered, there was also a subset of Peace Sentinel soldiers (presumably security or SWAT-like members) that appeared, wearing blue uniforms, a balaclava, headphones, as well as goggles where their eyes should be. It is unknown if there were any distinctions based on rank in most of these units, although it is known that the Reinforced Soldiers had one different variety for the commander of that particular unit. The commander of one of the Reinforced Soldier Units often had a red device adorning his helmet, and more often than not commandeered a vehicle. There are also a variety of soldiers that have brown moustaches, white t-shirts, green pants, and headsets, and sometimes are wearing shades and are cleanshaven. These men are actually guards for the Underground Facility where Basilisk was stored.

There were also a variety of soldiers who wore uniforms similar to Strangelove, who were also of Soviet origin, along with a tan-helmeted, blue outfitted variety during Alerts. These were actually members of the KGB group that Vladimir Zadornov supplied the Peace Sentinels in terms of their alliance, to which they later betrayed.

Gameplay
Soldiers, as a general standard, carry radios for constant contact with their superiors. In later games, if a player is able to disarm a guard before he calls for help, shoot the radio or jam it with a chaff grenade, then the soldier would not be able to call for reinforcements. However, even if the player manages this, the soldier can still respond by escaping to safer area and then call for reinforcements. Soldiers manning high points are also known to carry binoculars, giving them a better field of vision than others.

Soldiers, in addition to the regular patrols, are also seen in attack squads, which may have slightly different weapons or equipment. Usually seen exclusively in Alert, Evasion, and Caution mode, these soldiers will swarm the player and either attack him in droves or (in Evasion mode) perform a "clearing", during which they actively fill a room they believe the player is hiding in and aim to expose his hiding place. This will even include checking inside lockers and attacking any cardboard boxes.

Typically, if enough of the attack squads are incapacitated (knocked out, tranquilized, or killed outright) while the game will still go to Alert Mode on detection, no reinforcements will arrive (due to all such reinforcements being dead or otherwise incapacitated at the time).