The GN-005 Gundam Virtue (aka Gundam Virtue, Gundam Virtue Particle, Virtue) is a mobile suit featured in season one of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It is piloted by Tieria Erde.
A heavily armed and armored mobile suit, the Gundam Virtue has the highest offensive and defensive power among the third-generation Gundams deployed in AD 2307 by the Celestial Being, a paramilitary organization aiming to eliminate world conflicts through armed interventions. Specializing in artillery warfare for fleet battles and assaulting enemy strongholds, the Virtue's firepower is unmatched among contemporaries thanks to heavy beam weaponry, consisting of a GN Bazooka and two GN Cannons. As Virtue is not meant for anti-mobile suit combat, its only melee weapon is a pair of GN Beam Sabers. Due to its large size, Virtue's mobility and evasive capabilities are lower than the other Gundams, but these weaknesses are mitigated by its high defensive strength in the form of heavy armor and the ability to generate a 360-degree GN Field barrier around itself that can nullify most physical and beam attacks.
The Virtue demonstrated impressive propulsion capabilities when it was shown to be capable of overcoming the combined thrust of six MSJ-06II-E Tieren Space Types. Like the other Gundams, Virtue has a semi-perpetual GN Drive in the center of its body that provides almost limitless energy and generates special, multifunctional GN Particles. The GN Particles have a unique mass reduction effect and because of this, the heavily equipped Virtue can operate efficiently and weighs only half as much as the similarly bulky MSJ-06II-A Tieren Ground Type operated by the Human Reform League. This reduction effect remains even when the Virtue is not operating as the GN Drive continues to function. The GN Particles are also utilized for propulsion, beam weaponry, generation of GN Field, attitude control, and stealth purposes as they can cause electromagnetic interference, leaving conventional communications and radar devices useless.
Due to the heavy GN Particle demand of Virtue's beam weaponry and GN Field, large capacity GN Condensers are mounted throughout its body to store excess particles produced by the GN Drive when the Gundam is not operating. The GN Particles are primarily controlled through a pair of torso-mounted clavicle antennas, and light purple-colored "GN Cables" are installed in various locations to facilitate the supply of these particles to each part of the Gundam and for attitude control purposes. In an emergency, the Virtue can activate the special "Trans-Am System" to enhance its thrust and defensive strength, as well as increase its output to three times that of its normal specifications for a limited time period. The Virtue glows red as a side-effect and though Trans-Am boosts the power of its beam weaponry, this system is also a double-edged sword as Virtue's performance will drop dramatically once it ends.
Besides the Trans-Am System, which is also utilized by other Gundams, the Virtue has another method of responding to emergencies that is unique, it can purge its armor to reveal the GN-004 Gundam Nadleeh. However, this was not the original intention of the armor purging mechanism, which was meant for the simultaneous switch to Nadleeh while activating the latter's Trial System. The concept of hiding a Gundam within another Gundam can be traced to the common predecessor of Virtue and Nadleeh – the second generation GNY-004 Gundam Plutone, which is fitted with an ejectable flight unit known as the "Core Fighter". The Plutone is also the first Gundam capable of generating a 360-degree GN Field, but its generation system is not as stable as Virtue's. The Nadleeh is concealed to prevent its Trial System, an ability to stop betrayers, from being discovered and for effective utilization of the limited numbers of GN Drives that Celestial Being has.
Among the third-generation Gundams, Virtue's development was the slowest. At that time, the current form of Virtue was also known as "Gundam Virtue Particle" to differentiate it from an alternate design, the physical projectile-based GN-005/PH Gundam Virtue Physical. Both designs are prepared by Veda, Celestial Being's quantum computing system, based on its predictions about armed intervention missions. Despite their differences, both Virtue Particle and Virtue Physical are designed as artillery units for anti-fleet and anti-stronghold combat, this ensures the Nadleeh is positioned at the rear and could quickly return to the base or mothership to be outfitted with more effective equipment to stop betrayers. In the end, after studying the results of multiple joint exercises involving the four Gundam Meisters, Veda chose Virtue Particle as it displayed better cooperability with the other Gundams.
Veda rejected the idea of keeping the Virtue Physical as alternate equipment because switching equipment mid-mission is expected to be very difficult due to the lean manpower and the design of the mothership. There is also the worry that the enemy might discover the hidden Nadleeh by observing the commonalities between the two equipment sets. The Gundam Virtue is eventually succeeded by the reborn Celestial Being's GN-008 Seravee Gundam, which is also an anti-fleet and anti-stronghold mobile suit equipped with multiple beam cannons and GN Field. Data from the Gundam Virtue is also utilized in the development of the CBY-077 GN Cannon and the GNZ-003 Gadessa, the former is part of Veda's alternate plan for armed intervention and the latter is used by an enemy of the reborn Celestial Being.
