FOX

FOX (short for Force Operation X) was a military group in the United States of America affiliated with the CIA. It was led by 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 operative 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 Zero, who once served in the SAS, it 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. Operatives were aided in their so-called 'Sneaking Missions' by unique and advanced equipments developed within their own division, such as the Active Sonar, Motion Detecor and AP Sensor. FOX mainly operated one-man infiltration missions.

FOX executed the Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater in 1964. Their first operative, Naked Snake, succeeded in infiltrating Soviet territory on his own. His remote support team included Sigint, Para-Medic and Zero. Snake's mission was originally simply to rescue weapons developer Sokolov, but it grew to mass proportions, and Snake was eventually forced to destroy a secret weapon being developed by the Soviet Union known as the Shagohod.

Following Operation Snake Eater, Big Boss (Naked Snake) left FOX and a man called Gene joined the unit and became known as Viper and the Commander of FOX. In 1970 soon after, FOX members Gene, Cunningham, Python, Null, and Elisa/Ursula went renegade on San Hieronymo Peninsula and Zero was arrested by the Pentagon. Using Metal Gear RAXA and a ballistic Metal Gear, they attempted to attack the Soviet Union, but were stopped by Naked Snake and Roy Campbell who 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 with the exception of Para Medic, Sigint, and Zero who stayed in the United States and went their own ways. It is later revealed that the rebellion was actually staged, and that they were obeying the CIA, at least at first. However, they were also given an alternate order by the Pentagon (through one of their own members, Lt. Cunningham.) to launch the ICBMG into the Soviet Union in order to tarnish the CIA's reputation (the CIA's orders were to steal the ICBMG, hand it over to the Soviets, and pretend to defect).

Besides the elite members of FOX, regular FOX soldiers were involved in the revolt as well, providing basic grunt duties for high-security areas. 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 patern circa Operation Snake Eater. 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. This was partially due to the assassination of the DCI at the hands of Ocelot. A year later, Big Boss formed FOXHOUND.

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.

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. It is unknown whether each codename corresponded to a particular rank, though Python chose to maintain the codename he had been given previously, before joining FOX.

It should also be noted that the name "FOX" can refer to any member of the unit.

Known Members

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

Trivia

 * The Boss's role in FOX was explained by Zero as mission advisor.
 * Though Elisa is bound to her alter persona, "Ursula", Elisa never considered herself a part of FOX, specifying her occupation to Big Boss as "just a medic".
 * The FOX unit logo was used as the identifier of 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 Peace Walker, a special Peace Walker UMD for the Entertainment pack of Peace Walker includes in-game, among other things, a FOX camouflage uniform.

Appearances

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