Buzzard

The Buzzard is Grand Theft Auto V's signature light attack helicopter — a twin-minigun and missile-equipped combat aircraft that has been one of GTA Online's most-flown vehicles across the game's lifecycle. Of V's helicopter catalog, the Buzzard is the one most associated with combat: where civilian helicopters anchor traversal and observation, the Buzzard is the rotorcraft players reach for when the encounter is about to involve weapons. In Online specifically, the Buzzard's combination of speed, agility, and integrated armaments has kept it in active rotation for years after launch.

What's confirmed

Class: Helicopter — light attack / armed-rotorcraft tier
Armament: Twin miniguns and missile-launcher capability (specific missile type / capacity / lock-on behavior deferred to verifiable archive review)
Game: Grand Theft Auto V (2013 original, 2014 PS4/Xbox One re-release, 2022 PS5/Xbox Series X|S "Expanded and Enhanced") and GTA Online
Operational role: Combat aircraft — used by the player for armed missions and (in Online) free-roam PvP, and used by NPC factions including law enforcement and military-coded antagonists in some V missions

What this entry doesn't yet include

Deferred until verifiable:

In-game manufacturer brand (the Buzzard's V manufacturer label is deferred to verifiable archive review — the V vehicle catalog has multiple potential brand candidates for combat helicopters, and brand attribution should be sourced rather than guessed)
Exact top-speed / handling / damage-resistance stats
Specific missile capacity, reload, and lock-on behavior
Customization catalog (the Buzzard has had cosmetic / paint variants across V Online updates; specific catalog deferred)
Acquisition path in GTA Online (price tier, unlock progression, specific update introduction date deferred)
Specific mission appearances in V's main story
Variant catalog (a separate "Buzzard Attack Chopper" exists in some Online contexts; specific variant differentiation deferred)
Specific real-world helicopter aesthetic inspiration

Why it's catalog-worthy

The Buzzard is the V helicopter most commonly seen in player-content highlights and GTA Online's most-shared combat clips. Its silhouette is recognizable across the player base — players who never personally piloted a Buzzard have seen one fired at them in Online free-roam often enough to know the shape instantly.

For mission-design purposes the Buzzard is also one of V's clearer examples of an integrated-weapon vehicle. Most prior mainline GTAs had given the player either ground vehicles or unarmed aircraft (with separate manual weapons); the Buzzard packages the rotorcraft + sustained armament + agility combination into a single airframe in a way that became the design template for V Online's later combat-vehicle additions (the Akula, the Hunter, the Annihilator, etc.).

For GTA VI's eventual aircraft catalog, the question of whether the studio repeats the integrated-armament-helicopter pattern is worth tracking. The Leonida setting — coastal, hurricane-prone, with the Keys' boat-traversal grammar — may shape rotorcraft design differently than V's Los Angeles geography did. Whether VI ships a direct Buzzard equivalent or a meaningfully different combat-rotorcraft register is one of the trackable design questions of the launch.

What's connected

Western Bagger — V's other vehicle-catalog skeleton with strong faction-narrative pairing
RPG — V's anti-vehicle weapon; player encounters with Buzzards in Online routinely involve players reaching for the RPG to ground them

Sources

Grand Theft Auto V (2013) — base game, primary source
Rockstar Newswire archive — Buzzard context across V Online updates

Skeleton entry. Specific manufacturer brand, stats, missile loadout, customization catalog, and variant differentiation land when sourced.