War Thunder: Player Allegedly Reveals Military Secrets – Says he found them during research

In a forum of the free MMO War Thunder, a player allegedly leaked secret US government military documents.

What is War Thunder?

• War Thunder is a free-to-play MMO that was released on November 1st, 2012 and is playable on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Windows PCs via Steam, as well as on Linux and macOS.
• In War Thunder, players lead large-scale battles on air, sea and land.
• In War Thunder, military vehicles such as tanks and planes play an important role.
• The MMO is known for its realistic representation of the different vehicles.

Player posts secret documents related to a fighter plane

What did the player do? War Thunder player spacenavy90 allegedly posted four military documents on the game’s official forums. There he was involved in a discussion and shared the information with the phrase: “In my research I came across something interesting.”

He then elaborates on the information the docs give him and shares the docs with the rest of the forum. The documents contain information on a US fighter jet, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, which was also the subject of the forum discussion.

However, the information is not intended for the public and has since been deleted from the official War Thunder forum. They were visible there on Monday around 9:00 p.m.

For whom are the documents accessible? Some screenshots of the documents show information about who has access to them.

For example, two of the four documents say “DoD only” (DoD is short for “US Department of Defense”). Accordingly, only employees of the US Department of Defense are allowed to see the content of the documents.

Another document is marked as follows: “Distribution authorized to US Gov’t, agencies only”.

Not the first “War Thunder” leak of secret information

These incidents have happened in the past: Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time a War Thunder player has publicly shared classified military information.

In October 2021, a player leaked information about the French tank “Leclerc 2”. The turning speed of the vehicle in the game was too fast for him, whereupon he probably shared the actual turning speed. He substantiated his information with the statement that he drives this tank in real life. He is also said to have posted parts of the manual.

In addition, an alleged tank commander published secret documents about the British “Challenger 2” tank as early as July 2021.