In addition to the Challenger 2 armor leak and the possible Eurocopter Tiger leak, a leak of France's Leclerc Main Battle Tank and the specs of a Chinese armament shell are both confirmed to have happened in 20, respectively (more on those below). There may be up to six instances of War Thunder players leaking classified information on the game's forums.
Rumors say the "leaker" had actually worked on the helicopter in question and thus was able to provide Gaijin Entertainment with non-public information on its specs (it is still unverified if said incident took place). Though this is considered the first major leak in the War Thunder forums by many publications, after similar instances occurred, users in various forums have cited an incident where classified data on the Eurocopter Tiger had leaked, and that incident was the first War Thunder forums leak. The user was warned and moderators and developers reiterated their stance that Gaijin Entertainment only creates vehicles based on publicly available information.
Ministry of Defence that the document posted by Fear_Naught remained classified, and that posting the image was an illegal offense that could carry a 14-year prison sentence.
The user, believed to be a member of the Royal Tank Regiment of the United Kingdom, then uploaded altered images they claimed were from the Army Equipment Support Publication, or AESP, of the tank.Ī moderator of the forums responded to the post saying that the team behind Gaijin had received written confirmation from the U.K. On July 14th, 2021, War Thunder forum user Fear_Naught took issue with the game's representation of Britain's Challenger 2 tank. Developer Gaijin Entertainment has publically stated its policy is to use publically available information when modeling combat vehicles, which inevitably leads to some inaccuracy in crafting a so-called "perfect" recreation of said vehicles. That has left s ome users of “War Thunder” to wonder if the leaks were intentional or part of a larger disinformation campaign, especially given the sudden resurgence of the game during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.In the video game War Thunder, players can operate realistic combat vehicles modeled on actual military equipment.
CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS WAR THUNDER MANUALS
While such manuals in and of themselves are classified, it is unclear if the particular information contained had been previously leaked. In multiple cases, the leaks include the exposure of portions of vehicle manuals, though the latest leak is unique in that it included a photo of the actual weapon in question. “War Thunder” launched in 2013, and the massively multiplayer game is billed by its developers on the video game platform steam as “the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, a military game dedicated to aviation, armored vehicles, and naval craft.”Īnd while the weapons systems and vehicles are meant to loosely follow real-world capabilities, users on its forums have long debated the accuracy of such systems. The controversy may have helped the popularity of the game, which is averaging over 40,000 players per day in June, up from about 29,000 in February, according to data provided by Steam. In fact, the most recent example is, by some counts, the fifth leak associated with a tank featured in the game, most of which have occurred in the last six months.Ĭlassified information related to the French Leclerc Main Battle tank and a different Chinese tank, the APFSDS have all appeared on the site, along with two leaks associated with the Challenger, the main battle tank of the British military. The forums of “War Thunder” have hosted a number of similar materials before. Yet, the latest incident is one of several similar incidents from the game. Commencing at the end of August, China has announced strict measures to cut online gaming time for children under 18 years of age to a maximum of three hours a week during designated times, in an attempt to curb addiction. People play online video games in a game arcade on Septemin Beijing, China. In its place, “War Thunder” moderators posted a message stating, “Materials related to the DTC10-125 are classified in China” and have warned other users of the game from sharing such materials. The image was promptly removed but can still be found on various social media sites. The image posted on “War Thunder” forums on May 31 showed the weapons system in question, a tungsten penetrator, on top of a classified military document that detailed the weapon’s specifications.
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