Arsenal Gear is the code name for a fictional weapons platform in the videogame Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In the game, it is the latest generation of Metal Gear.

History

Arsenal Gear is located beneath the Big Shell facility, and takes the form of a submersible mobile fortress. Vast in scale, its primary function is to provide a secure haven for a supercomputer called "GW". This is designed to monitor, block, and tamper with Internet communications, in order to further the totalitarian agenda of the "Patriots", their "S3 Program". One of its principal engineers is Emma "E.E." Emmerich, Hal Emmerich's sister.

Defenses

Arsenal Gear is never shown using any weapony of its own; instead, a hangar of about 25 production model Metal Gear RAY units under the remote control of GW provides much of its defensive capability. There are also an unspecified number of "Arsenal Tengu", heavily armoured soldiers each bearing a P90 submachine gun and Katana. The latter are defeated by Raiden and Snake, the former by Raiden, Solidus Snake, and Emma Emmerich's computer virus. It is also belived to have a large payload of nuclear weapons including a purified hydrogen bomb; however, without full air, sea and land support Arsenal Gear is practically defenseless.

Purpose

To protect and carry a neural network-based computer, "GW," that will be used for testing and enforcing the S3 (Selection for Societal Sanity) Program. This program is designed to control and select memes which are 'good' for the human race. The "Patriots" perceive that natural selection does not affect information since the dawn of the internet; this device provides an artifical check to the process (perhaps analogous to eugenics' belief that genes should be artifically selected).

Name

The name "GW" may or may not be a reference to George Washington Bridge in New York City, which is colloquially known as GW. Snake leaps from this bridge at the start of the game (and intends to be collected from Verazzano bridge downstream at the end of his mission). The George Washington is considered to be a very "intelligent" bridge, one with many cameras and other electronic devices.

It is also theorized by some that "GW" might be a reference to George W. Bush and the "Patriot Act," to which the in-game group, The Patriots, possibly makes a reference to due to the, slightly, totalitarian powers the act gives the United States government.