FOX

Force Operation X, more commonly known as FOX, was a military group in the United States of America affiliated with the CIA. It was originally led by Major Zero during the Cold War. The unit was specifically designed to handle top secret sneaking and infiltration missions and possibly other black ops. Its most notable agent was Naked Snake, who was only with the unit for a short time during the early 1960s.

History
FOX was a special services division established by the CIA in the 1960s. Proposed by former SAS operative Major Zero and The Boss in 1962, FOX was a covert missions unit that fulfilled both special operations and intelligence duties. However, it was not until 1964 that it became an official branch of the CIA. Agents were aided in their sneaking missions by unique and advanced equipment developed within their own division, such as the Active Sonar, Motion Detector and AP Sensor. FOX mainly operated one-man infiltration missions.

In 1964, FOX's first agent Naked Snake executed both the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater, succeeding in infiltrating Soviet territory on his own both times. His remote support team included Sigint, Para-Medic and Major Zero. Snake's mission was originally simply to rescue weapons developer Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov, but it grew to mass proportions, and Snake was eventually forced to destroy the Shagohod, a secret weapon being developed by the Russian Philosophers and later by Colonel Volgin within Groznyj Grad. During the latter mission, Snake commandeered a prototype Sneaking Suit.

Post-Snake Eater
Following the "success" of Operation Snake Eater, Big Boss (Naked Snake) left FOX and Major Zero retired soon after. After 1964, the unit used their first agent Naked Snake's codename as the basis for its Snake-like codenames (i.e. Viper and Boa). Also after 1964, Viper rescued Sokolov from the Soviet Union and, circa 1966, an orphan from East Germany. Because of Big Boss retrieving the Sneaking Suit prototype during Operation Snake Eater from Groznyj Grad, the FOX Unit also reverse-engineered and mass produced the Sneaking suits to make the Aromatic Polyamide-made CQC Combat Enhancers, which also became the official uniform for the elite members of FOX. At some point, Boa, real name Lt. Cunningham, was sent out on a mission, but the results of the mission forced him to have his right leg amputated and replaced with a peg-leg prosthetic, as well as being confined to a desk job at Langley.



During the 1970 San Hieronymo Takeover, Gene (Viper) became the FOX unit's squad commander with several agents (Cunningham, Python, Null, and Ursula) and the Red Army soldiers went renegade on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, which caused Major Zero to be arrested by the Pentagon and Naked Snake to be charged with treason for spearheading the revolt. Using Metal Gear RAXA and its original model, they attempted to attack the Soviet Union, but were stopped by Naked Snake and Roy Campbell, who had recruited some of the Red Army soldiers and some of the FOX soldiers to their side. Those in the FOX unit who refused to take part in the rebellion were killed (excluding Para-Medic and Sigint because they were in the United States and went their own ways). It was later revealed that the rebellion was actually staged and that they were obeying the DCI of the CIA, at least at first. The DCI had the FOX unit steal the Intercontinental Ballistic Metal Gear then hand it over to the Soviets and pretend to defect. However, they were also given an alternate order by the DoD (via their agent Cunningham, who secretly allied himself with the DoD out of revenge against his former CIA employers for their treatment of him after he lost his leg) to launch Metal Gear into the Soviet Union in order to tarnish the CIA's reputation (this is appearently because there was internal conflict within the American Philosophers).

Besides the elite members of FOX, regular FOX soldiers were involved in the revolt as well, providing basic grunt duties for high-security areas as well as occasionally acting as backup soldiers in case either the regular soldiers are otherwise unavailable to deter possible intruders or if security measures end up increased. These soldiers were armed with carbines (the XM177E2, the experimental form of the CAR-15 that would later become the M4) and wore camouflage suits similar to Naked Snake's tigerstripe pattern circa Operation Snake Eater in 1964. They also wore black berets with the FOX logo and headsets. Some of the regular FOX soldiers also ended up being recruited into Snake's resistance that later became FOXHOUND.

An unintended consequence for the CIA in staging FOX's rebellion was that the bunker under Langley had lesser security than usual, thus allowing Ocelot to sneak in easily and ambush the DCI.

After the incident, FOX was officially disbanded, partially due to the assassination of the DCI at the hands of Ocelot.

Post-disbandment
Although FOX was officially disbanded and replaced with the FOXHOUND unit, the official military uniform for the Militaires Sans Frontieres during the Peace Walker Incident included the FOX logo on the right shoulder in addition to the MSF logo on the left shoulder.

OSP
Although functioning as a highly able unit backed by advanced technology, FOX excelled in missions emphasizing invisibility; both on a physical presence and political scale. To that end, the concept of OSP (On-Site Procurement) was a standard FOX operating procedure, the idea being that any weapons used in combat were to be those of the enemy's own stock and thus impossible to trace back to the US or FOX in any way that would prove their involvement. Other details, such as food and items, were also a part of this methodology; serving to conceal FOX agents and their origin.

This concept of scavenging a mission site would carry on in FOX's successor unit, FOXHOUND.

Military resources
Due to its stance as a stealth unit, FOX usually does not utilize weapons outside of OSP (although there have been exceptions, namely if the mission does call to prove America's involvement such as Operation Snake Eater).

Circa 1964

 * Olive drab uniform


 * Raikov Mask


 * Mk22


 * M1911A1 (Operation Snake Eater only)


 * Combat knife


 * Radio


 * Parachute


 * Combat Talon (Virtuous Mission only)

1970

 * Headsets


 * Tiger-stripe camo


 * CQC Enhancer Suit (elite FOX members only)


 * XM177E2


 * Stun grenades


 * Ithaca M37


 * Vz. 61 Scorpion


 * M870


 * Combat knife

Training regimen
An extensive list of training within FOX is not specified, but it is known that, aside from utilizing OSP, the FOX operatives are extensively trained to resist torture in regards to electric torture, physical torture, and serum-based interrogation.

Codename system
After Operation Snake Eater, members of FOX took their codenames after the family names of various snakes, in honor of FOX's most famous operative, Naked Snake. As such, Python maintained the codename he had used prior to joining FOX.

The name "FOX" can also refer to any member of the unit.

Known members

 * Zero (founder)
 * Naked Snake
 * Para-Medic
 * Sigint
 * The Boss (co-founder)
 * Gene (Viper)
 * Cunningham (Boa)
 * Python
 * Elisa and Ursula
 * Null

Trivia

 * The Boss's role in FOX was explained by Zero as mission advisor. The Boss (through EVA in her tapes to Snake) later explained that she also was the one who founded the FOX unit with Major Zero, shortly after she was forced to kill The Sorrow.
 * Though Elisa is bound to her alter persona "Ursula," Elisa never considered herself a part of FOX, specifying her occupation to Naked Snake as "just a medic."
 * During the Peace Walker Incident, Big Boss's uniform, within the Militaires Sans Frontieres, displayed the FOX logo on its right shoulder.

Behind the scenes
It is possible that FOX was a unit within the CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD).

The FOX unit logo was used as the identifier of Solid Snake in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It is also used as the current logo for Kojima Productions.

Although FOX is officially disbanded by the time of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a special UMD for the Entertainment Pack of Peace Walker includes in-game, among other things, a FOX camouflage uniform.

"A member of CIA Special Forces unit FOX. The brainchild of Major Zero, FOX is a next-generation unit combining combat abilities with spying prowess that has rebelled and taken over the San Hieronymo Peninsula. Supervises the Soviet soldiers."

- FOX unit soldier A description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

"A member of CIA Special Forces unit FOX. The brainchild of Major Zero, FOX is a next-generation unit combining combat abilities with spying prowess that has recently rebelled and taken over the San Hieronymo Peninsula. The silent type."

- FOX unit soldier B description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

"A member of FOX, a CIA Special Forces unit. The brainchild of Major Zero, FOX is a next-generation unit combining combat abilities with spying prowess. They have rebelled and taken control over the San Hieronymo Peninsula. Something of a gym rat."

- FOX unit soldier C description in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops