Sears Program

The Sears Program was a project practiced by World Marshal Inc. and Desperado Enforcement LLC., meant to replicate the methods of former president George Sears' training of child soldiers during the Liberian Civil War.

Methods and history
In order to manufacture child soldiers for the reawakening of the war economy in 2018, Desperado cooperated with the local mafia to abduct children, namely street beggars, in human trafficking, by tricking them into thinking that they'll be hired to a well-paying job. After they place the bait, the children are then thrown into a boat to be taken to a Desperado-owned research facility located in Guadalajara, Mexico. Desperado's researchers, upon receiving the children, then proceed to surgically remove the childrens' brains and install them onto mechanical cyborg head casings. The remaining bodies post-surgery were presumably sold in human trafficking. After a certain time period, they are then shipped to Denver, Colorado by the Mafia, specifically to a medical facility for "treatment," and are then placed into "adoption" by the Mafia, due to loopholes regarding human rights laws and the Arms Trade Treaty that allow the children to be considered humans, albeit lacking in bodies. However, they are actually sent directly to World Marshal's HQ building. The children are then placed into VR training, which was specifically modelled after George Sears' methods of training child soldiers during the Liberian Civil War. Upon "graduating" the class, the children are then given new bodies.

Raiden and Maverick discovered this plot when investigating the Desperado facility in Mexico. Because Maverick was unwilling to break the law by directly attacking World Marshal Inc., Raiden abruptly resigned from Maverick to do so himself, feeling that he has to prevent the children from experiencing the same childhood as himself, having been one of Solidus Snake's former child soldiers in Liberia, and also knowing that the brains had only been shipped a month prior, meaning he can save the children from this fate in time as VR training cannot be issued at an accelerated rate to cyborgs unlike UGs.

Because of Raiden and indirectly Maverick's actions, the Sears Program was shut down for good.

Behind the scenes
The Sears Program was a major plotpoint in the game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.