Merryweather Security

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Merryweather Security Consulting is a private military company in Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and GTA Online, founded and run by Don Percival. In the story it is one of the main hostile forces facing Michael, Franklin and Trevor. In GTA Online players can phone Merryweather to buy ammo drops, backup, mercenaries and airstrikes.

What is Merryweather in GTA V?

Merryweather Security Consulting is a fictional private military company, a firm that sells armed guards, escorts and combat troops to governments and private clients. Wikipedia's plot summary of Grand Theft Auto V calls it simply "the private military company Merryweather". The game came out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 17 September 2013, and the company has been part of GTA Online since that mode launched.

GTA Wiki says the company was founded by Don Percival, who is still its chief executive, and that it works across North and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the former Soviet states and Asia-Pacific. In San Andreas its main base is the naval port on Elysian Island in Los Santos. Its business, according to the wiki, covers private security, courier work, escorts and contract killing.

Who is Merryweather based on?

GTA Wiki says Merryweather parodies Academi, the US contractor previously known as Blackwater and Xe Services, which was linked to alleged abuses during the Iraq War. The wiki adds that the styling of Merryweather's name echoes Blackwater's old logo. Wikipedia's GTA V article, as read for this page, does not discuss the inspiration, so treat it as the fan wiki's reading.

What does Merryweather do in the GTA V story?

Merryweather is on the wrong side of almost every big job. GTA Wiki lists the losses the three protagonists inflict on it. The crew steals an experimental weapon in The Merryweather Heist, shoots down a cargo plane in Minor Turbulence and derails a courier train in Derailed. Dozens of its operatives die in a shootout at the Kortz Center, more in a failed home invasion, and others during the Union Depository heist.

The company also turns up in the game's government plot. Wikipedia describes a three-way standoff between the FIB, the IAA and Merryweather when the corrupt agent Steve Haines is due to be arrested. The billionaire Devin Weston, who has his own grudge against Michael De Santa, sends a Merryweather platoon after the crew, according to GTA Wiki.

In the ending where Franklin Clinton spares both his partners, Wikipedia says Michael, Franklin and Trevor survive an assault by the FIB and Merryweather before killing Devin and their other enemies. GTA Wiki says the company afterwards loses its US government contract and its licence to operate on American soil, and that Don Percival buys most of Devin's 11% stake in the firm. See our page on GTA heists for the jobs themselves.

How do Merryweather services work in GTA Online?

In GTA Online the company is both enemy and supplier. Players can phone Merryweather and pay in-game money for help, with each service unlocking at a set rank. GTA Wiki lists the following:

Merryweather in GTA Online updates

The company is a stock enemy in heists and business missions. GTA Wiki lists early jobs that have the player steal a Titan plane, attack helicopters and an electromagnetic weapon from Merryweather, and roles in the Heists update, The Doomsday Heist, The Diamond Casino Heist, The Cayo Perico Heist, The Contract and Los Santos Drug Wars, among others. Wikipedia dates the Heists update to 10 March 2015 and The Doomsday Heist to 12 December 2017.

The biggest change came with San Andreas Mercenaries on 13 June 2023. Wikipedia says the player disrupts Merryweather's operations in that update and cuts back its presence in the state. GTA Wiki adds that the US government then ends its partnership with the company, though Merryweather troops keep appearing in later content.

Merryweather gear is some of the heaviest the player faces. GTA Wiki lists vehicles such as the Dilettante, Patriot, Insurgent, Buzzard, Valkyrie, P-996 LAZER, Titan and Kosatka submarine, and says the company's divisions include uniformed patrol guards, black-ops units and a chemical security unit at Humane Labs.