Oops they did it again: War Thunder player posts NATO restricted military manual for what feels like the hundredth time
The free-to-play military simulator War Thunder is taken incredibly seriously by its playerbase, some might say too seriously, and in recent years has been in the headlines again, and again, and again for one reason: players getting in arguments over the specifications of a given vehicle, until one produces actual real-world classified documents about it. Presumably in triumph. These documents tend to be highly protected—literally classified—and militaries understandably don't want the specs of their hardware floating around on the internet. So you'll never guess what's happened, again.
Well, at least this time it wasn't an argument. One player was especially keen to see the Eurofighter Typhoon added to the game, and thought they'd help the developers along… by posting a 730-page manual for the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7 on the forums, one of the jet's prototypes. "[It] contains EVERYTHING on all the systems, weaponry, flight data, etc," they cheerfully add alongside the Google Drive link. «I hope this data will help the devs add this magnificent jet faster and make it as accurate as possible! Can't wait to fly it in the game!»
A moderator replies within 15 minutes saying «Do not post the DA.7 manuals» and linking to developer Gaijin Entertainment's policy page on classified documents. The document was subsequently scrubbed from the forums with lots of «don't make me tap the sign again» energy.
Ah man, it happened again...Export Restricted documents got leaked on the War Thunder forums, this time for the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7… pic.twitter.com/pjByRUXrcSAugust 29, 2023
As War Thunder leaks go, this is one of the less-illegal kind: The manual is public in NATO countries, though is export restricted for non-NATO countries.
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