Howard Strong

Howard Strong is an up-and-coming member of Majestic 12. He appears as a minor antagonist in Deus Ex.

Biography
An engineer by training, Howard Strong sought to rise through the ranks of MJ12. Strong was an MJ12 asset stationed at a missile silo that houses a nuclear missile. When MJ12 troops took control of the silo, Bob Page placed Strong in charge of the MJ12 operation at the silo, which entails the launching the missile against Vandenberg Air Force Base.

At the missile silo, Strong leads a formidable force of MJ12 Troopers, Commandos, and Men in Black, who have either killed or imprisoned the entire workforce of the base. JC Denton arrives at the base to deactivate the missile, but he ends up rerouting the missile to be launched against Area 51 instead. When JC reaches the launch chamber, Strong is aboard a forklift, attempting to destroy the missile manually. However, Strong is unable to accomplish his task, and meets defeat at the hands of JC.

Interactions
Killing or incapacitating Howard Strong is part of a mission objective for the missile silo phase of the 12th mission. When JC steps on the floor of the silo where Strong is located, Strong will begin throwing LAMs and following up with his Plasma Rifle.

Trivia

 * Howard Strong was originally planned to be a rival to Gary Savage, and the two would have appeared in subplot that was cut from the game. Howard Strong was planned to be a key member of the "Raiders," a faction seeking to take control of Vandenberg Air Force Base from the "Salvagers," a faction led by Gary Savage. The storyline would also have involved a love affair between Gary Savage's daughter Tiffany and Howard Strong's son Ned Strong. Over the course of development, the battle between the Raiders and the Salvagers was changed to one between Majestic 12 and X-51, and Howard Strong's role was repurposed to appear at the missile silo instead of Vandenberg.
 * In the character backstories in design document v.13.12, Howard Strong is described a former X-51 scientist who defected to the side of Majestic 12. This backstory detail of being an X-51 defector, which would have made him a defector of an organization that had defected from Majestic 12, was cut from the final game.