War Thunder players have a well-known history of revealing restricted military documents merely to win online debates with strangers—some might even call it a tradition at this stage. This trend continues unabated as yet another War Thunder participant has exposed a restricted military document and was quickly banned from the game.
This latest leak involves the flight manual for the AV-8B Harrier jump jet. The player, now temporarily banned, posted a portion of the NATOPS manual for the AV-8B and TAV-8B Harrier jets, which are primarily operated by the US Navy and Marine Corps. Fortunately, these documents are not fully classified but are restricted under Distribution Statement C, indicating they aren’t authorized for public release. This likely means the user who shared them may face limited legal consequences.
This marks the ninth occasion a military secret has surfaced on War Thunder forums. Most of these leaks have occurred during debates about the performance of in-game vehicles, with some players willing to risk exposing state secrets to prove their points.
“This probably isn’t the biggest leak ever, not at all. These kinds of manuals float around online, especially older ones. But that doesn’t change the fact that if it’s marked as controlled or restricted, platforms like War Thunder have no choice but to take action,” said a former RAF engineer, as quoted by UK Defence Journal.
Some notable past leaks have included military vehicles such as the UK’s Challenger 2 main battle tank, France’s Leclerc, China’s ZTZ-99, the Eurocopter Tiger, F-16, F-15E, F-117, and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The majority of these leaks, however, concern US military equipment.
It Just Keeps Happening
For those unfamiliar, War Thunder is an ultra-realistic military simulator MMO that features mechanized modern warfare. Players operate tanks, planes, ships, and various vehicles in large-scale team battles, with the game using the actual names, models, and performance data of real-world military vehicles.
Some believe that a number of these leakers might be military personnel or contractors, which would explain their access to such sensitive documents. Others point out that several files, while marked restricted by the US Department of Defense, are nonetheless already available online — as seen with the recent Harrier manual leak.
The most likely explanation, however, is that War Thunder players are simply extremely passionate about their military vehicles and the game’s commitment to realism. Despite the leaks typically lacking in strategic or tactical impact, many War Thunder enthusiasts find the consistent leaks amusing given their frequency.
“So, someone explain to me how this keeps happening. Are the people posting classified material just careless individuals who have access due to their job, or is there a black market selling classified information to War Thunder fans obsessed with realism? Or is it something else?” asked a Reddit user.
“Sigh, I’ll reset the ‘days until War Thunder leaks’ counter,” remarked another.
“Autism knows no bounds,” added one more comment.
