Metal Gear REX Low Poly

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The nuclear weapons disposal facility on Shadow Moses Island was constructed to conceal the development of Metal Gear REX. Its rail gun was based on technology developed for the SDI, having been successfully miniaturized in a joint venture between ArmsTech and Livermore National Labs. Livermore also developed a new type of nuclear weapon for REX using NOVA and NIF laser nuclear fusion testing equipment and supercomputers.

One of the main goals of developing REX was to overcome a global trend in military downsizing at the time. A weapon such as REX would cause an immediate rift in the global power structure. REX was a self-mobile launch platform capable of using its massive rail gun to launch a nuclear warhead contained projectile package with a low radar cross-section, and without the need for a rocket propulsion system, the launch event was also undetectable by satellite thermal imaging unlike the massive heat signature characteristic of ICBM launches. It could give any country in the world a first-strike capability that other nations would find hard to counter. This also exploited a specific loophole that existed in anti-nuke treaties, since projectiles fired from a rail gun were not technically ICBMs, so the START treaties imposing limitations on ballistic missiles did not apply.

During REX's development, the Metal Gear engineers became concerned of what would happen if REX, after it was completed and doing solo ops in the field, was detected by the enemy and forced to engage in close range combat against conventional forces. They then decided that they could make REX's hull a weapon in itself. Although the program was completed, and had gotten fantastic results from supercomputer simulation, the military shelved the project before they could even install it (as the military viewed it as not being part of their regulations). However, REX's chief engineer Hal Emmerich secretly uploaded the data into REX anyway. Although the first actual prototype for REX was developed in 2005, it went through multiple prototype stages in VR while it was still in the design stage to correct various flaws before being developed. As REX was primarily tested via VR simulations, the Pentagon and ArmsTech needed to perform live testing to compare the simulation data with actual test results. Because of this, they started a field exercise at the remote military facility on Shadow Moses Island.