Enemy soldiers

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

Outer Heaven Soldiers
See Outer Heaven (nation)

The Outer Heaven Troops are the main forces of Big Boss's soldier nation and ideology, Outer Heaven. Divisions include Air troopers (Soldiers who utilize jetpacks to guard areas on top of buildings), Red Guards, and regular servicemen.

Zanzibar Land Soldiers
See Zanzibar Land

The Zanzibar Land Soldiers are the main forces of the country of Zanzibar Land. A large percentage of the Zanzibar Land Soldiers are war refugees and/or war orphans from across the third world, although soldiers that hailed from the first and second world aren't unheard of, and mercenaries also act as official members of the Zanzibar Land Military.

During November of 1999, the Zanzibar Land Forces had around 30,000 soldiers at its command, and a month later, more specifically on December 24th, the day of the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, the Zanzibar Land soldiers raised up to 40,000; which is about a 30% increase. 24,000 soldiers (roughly 60% of the entire Zanzibar Land Military) are also stationed as the security detail in their stronghold

After the events of Operation Intrude F014, the Military was in shambles, and most of the soldiers ended up being bought out by members of The Patriots to be merged with the Force XXI unit of the US Army and made into the Genome Soldiers.

Genome Army
See Genome Army

The Genome Soldiers were a genetically enhanced next generation special forces unit, so called due to the gene therapy they had undergone. Genome soldiers had genes specialized for combat, which improved their senses and skills as a soldier. Because of this, and much to Solid Snake's dismay, most genome soldiers had little to no actual combat experience. Some said that so-called Gulf War Syndrome was partly due to the side effects of Genome Soldier testing.

During the FOXHOUND Rebellion, the genome army served as the army for the renegade FOXHOUND group, although their seemingly willing cooperation was partly due the brainwashing of FOXHOUND member Psycho Mantis. On a related note, the Genome Soldiers who ended up being brainwashed by Psycho Mantis ended up losing morale and fleeing from Shadow Moses Island after Psycho Mantis's death (While it's not stated exactly how many of them fled, Liquid and Ocelot's conversation implied that it was a large percentage of them).

Following the defeat of the renegade FOXHOUND group at the hands of Solid Snake, the remainder of the Genome army that were truly willing to partake in the Rebellion (ie, they joined under their own free will and weren't forced to under Psycho Mantis's Brainwashing) were rounded up and imprisoned for treason. Johnny Sasaki, however, somehow managed to avoid this.

They appeared in Metal Gear Solid.

Gurlukovich Mercenaries
See Gurlukovich Mercenaries

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 Gurlukovich, the Gurlukovich merenaries assisted he and Ocelot in taking control of the tanker during the Tanker Incident. They then resurfaced two years later in 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 as Olga (their leader) is dead, leaving them leaderless

They appeared in Metal Gear Solid 2.



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

KGB
See KGB

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



Ocelot Unit
The Ocelot Unit were an elite Spetsnaz special forces 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 Ocelot unit appeared in Metal Gear Solid 3.

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



PMC
See Private Military Companies

By 2014, PMC (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 equalling the American army in numbers) 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-tech, high-end technology on the battlefield, and could come in and out of any conflict with minimal casualties. PMCs also were equipped with gear and weaponry used that by the US military itself such as the SCAR rifle, M4A1s (at least in earlier renders), Humvees, Strykers and numerous more.



FROGS
See FROGS

Whilst technically PMC troopers, FROGS serve outside of commercial PMCs, acting as Liquid's private army. They are an army of elite, all-female soldiers, seen primarily on Liquid's Outer Haven ship. They are occasionally dispatched for specific purposes, such as the retrieval of Naomi from Snake in South America, or to ambush the Rat Patrol in the Middle East.

They appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Peace Sentinels
The Peace Sentinels were a group hired by the CIA to organize Operation: Peace Walker on Costa Rica. 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. The Sentinels come in various varieties: Some as armored soldiers (Miller refers to them as reinforced soldiers in the Demo), some as CIA Mercs (they are distinguishable with the blue pants, golfer hat, and orange jacket, along with a hunting rifle.), as well as soldiers wearing green uniforms and balaclavas. If Snake manages to trigger an alert, there are also a subset of Peace Walker soldiers (presumably security or S.W.A.T. members) that appear that wear blue uniforms, a balaclava, headphones, as well as goggles where the eyes should be. It is unknown if there are any distinctions based on rank in most of these units, although it is known that the Reinforced Soldiers have one different variety for the commander of that particular unit. The commander of one of the Reinforced Soldier Units often wears a red device adorning his helmet, and more often than not commandeers a vehicle. There are also a variety of soldiers who wear uniforms similar to Strangelove who are also of Soviet origin in the first gameplay trailer, although it is unknown if they are also involved with the Peace Sentinels.

Soldier Behavior
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).

Behind the Scenes

 * The LYNX Unit was never actually named in-game. However, raw data that depicts the character models of soldiers resembling Jonathan listed them as LYNX.