Another War Thunder leak: player posts restricted F-16 documents

(Link / Archive)

Restricted documents pertaining to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet have been published on an online forum dedicated to the popular video game, War Thunder.

The game, in which players battle each other with an array of historical and modern military vehicles, has been a source of numerous controversies. Disgruntled gamers have posted classified documents on multiple occasions to convince developers to change the portrayal of a vehicle found in the game.

The latest controversy was sparked by a post published on the game’s forum, created by user spacenavy90 on January 16, 2023.

“Interesting thing I found during my research. During early AMRAAM testing you can see how F-16A would equip the AIM-120 and use TWS on the non-MFD stores control panel “SCP”,” the user said.

A document, which has since been deleted by the moderators of the forum, was attached to the post. A moderator then replied to the post saying that the document contained export-restricted data and, as per US laws, publishing it is banned.

A discussion ensued, according to which the document posted by the user was either a F-16 flight manual or a part of it. While the ‘classified’ status of the manual has expired, the forum’s users argued, its distribution is still restricted and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Without knowing the nature of the document posted, AeroTime could not confirm its status.

A persistent problem
This is not the first reported incident where potentially classified or restricted documents regarding military vehicles have been posted by fans of the game.

The first such instance appears to have taken place in 2021, when excerpts from a British Challenger 2 tank user manual were posted on one of the game’s forums, an attempt made by one user to convince the game’s developers to revamp the in-game model of the tank.

In the coming years, various restricted documents pertaining to French-made Leclerc tanks and Chinese DTC10-125 anti-armor shells were also posted by users, followed up by a host of classified documents regarding China’s latest Type 99 tank.

In addition to tanks, the game’s players also posted restricted documents detailing armor layout on the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter.

Forum moderators promptly removed the documents in all these cases.

Forum rules have reportedly been modified to ban the behavior. Furthermore, in 2021 Gaijin Entertainment actively reached out to the users of the game, asking them to stop publishing classified documents. However, these efforts appear to have had limited success.

As noted by some reports, at least some of the restricted documents posted by the game’s fans had already been leaked and can be found elsewhere on the internet – a caveat that likely extends to the F-16 flight manuals in question.

However, publication of such documents may still be restricted by national law in some countries, as was the case with the manuals of Leclerc and Challenger tanks.

UPDATE 01-17-2023, 16:20(UTC +3): According to Konstantin Govorun, the Head of PR at Gaijin Entertainment, the documents contained in the post were considered export restricted and contained information the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and its use on the F-16.

“We always delete posts containing classified or restricted information from our forum as soon as possible. We forbid our users to share documents like this on our platforms. We remind our users again and again that it’s both illegal and pointless, so they should never do that,” Govorun explained in an email to AeroTime.

“We never use them in our work and that policy will never change. Development team does not even look at the contents of the documents, moderators just check if the information on the military vehicle or armament in question is still classified or not. If the answer is a yes, we delete everything ASAP. Our game developers are never exposed to this information or the user posts that accompany the documents, so they are not influenced in any way by these situations,” Govorun added.

 

[Übertroon]

I saw some theory that Gaijin intentionally underpowers NATO vehicles so that autists will leak documents to get them to change it. Dumb but makes sense given how many times it's happened. Though I feel if some turbo sperg who would commit federal crimes because of a video game can get these documents then the Russians could have gotten them a lot easier. I suppose this method at least makes money though.

Russia likely has all the info it needs on the F-16 though. Far more likely that Gajin underpowers NATO vehicles because if not they would just curbstomp the soviet crap

 

[Computer Guardian]

Oh come on, how is it this hard for the feds to keep thier classified documents about thier tanks away from these autists?, they might as well just give the blueprints for thier newest tank to some random faggot in Kansas and hope nobody tries to steal it from them.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

Oh come on, how is it this hard for the feds to keep thier classified documents about thier tanks away from these autists?, they might as well just give the blueprints for thier newest tank to some random faggot in Kansas and hope nobody tries to steal it from them.

Well when it comes to these particular documents, any facility that ever worked on maintenance or operations for the F-16 is gonna have copies floating around somewhere, paper and digital. And since its no longer considered restricted, they wouldn't even be paying particular attention or care to whether one up and disappeared. Might not even notice if their particular air base doesn't see F16's come through very often.

In the wider problem space, its the military industrial complex. Huge numbers of contractors touch every aspect of these vehicles, at every level, including wide swathes of documentation. Only takes on person to leak, and they've got thousands if not tens of thousands of people handling them.

 

[TowinKarz]

This happens on forums devoted to trains too probably right?

All the time, it's just that trains aren't cool enough to have ever had classified stamped on their blueprints, making it the boring kind of autism..... the legal kind.

 

[Troonos]

Okay, so where's the document hosted so we can build our own Fighting Kiwi?

 

[Paul Pelosi's Boyfriend]

I wonder how they would feel about someone posting The Pentagon Wars? If any of it were actually true it would be very embarrassing!

 

[Your Spiritual Liege]

When will people learn that Gaijin DOESN'T FUCKING CARE whether the in-game vehicle data are actual/up-to-date or not, they have been caught, on mutliple occasions, changing the vehicle/weapons specification and then coming up with some half-assed explanations, like "incomplete data" or my favourite "it can't be FULLY historically accurate, or it would imbalance the game". Like, why the fuck people even care to post this shit?

I could bet you 100 bucks that an information could leak tomorrow, saying that Gaijin has incorporated some kind of a script that directly influences the RNG, during your games, based on. e.g. the current battle task or mission type, effectively influencing the RNG outcome, and 80% of the player base would STILL play this fucking game, i see it in the Clan discord servers i frequent, solid 50% of the playerbase are dopamine addicts and they don't want to abandon the game, on which they have spent hundreds of dollars/euros etc.

I don't think it is just autism, it's a full-blown mental retardation.

 

[Breadbassket]

When will people learn that Gaijin DOESN'T FUCKING CARE whether the in-game vehicle data are actual/up-to-date or not, they have been caught, on mutliple occasions, changing the vehicle/weapons specification and then coming up with some half-assed explanations, like "incomplete data" or my favourite "it can't be FULLY historically accurate, or it would imbalance the game". Like, why the fuck people even care to post this shit?

I could bet you 100 bucks that an information could leak tomorrow, saying that Gaijin has incorporated some kind of a script that directly influences the RNG, during your games, based on. e.g. the current battle task or mission type, effectively influencing the RNG outcome, and 80% of the player base would STILL play this fucking game, i see it in the Clan discord servers i frequent, solid 50% of the playerbase are dopamine addicts and they don't want to abandon the game, on which they have spent hundreds of dollars/euros etc.

I don't think it is just autism, it's a full-blown mental retardation.

Think has it to do with a false belief that the game is "realistic" when the reality is Gaijin will do things like make a new premium super overpowered for one patch then nerf it to death in the next one after tons of people have brought it. Stuff like "wow this game has no health bars and you can one shot other players unlike in that OTHER tank game" comes to mind here.

There is also the sunk cost fallacy you mentioned in your post where people want to justify their time playing WT like it's a full-time job to grind to a top level vehicle or airplane without spending any money. To be fair if I spent a year trying to get an endgame jet or tank and found out just as I got it that it isn't very good I could potentially see why some people would try to leak classified information in the naive belief that the great snail would see it and improve the vehicle you play with.

 

[Molokroid]

Any re-uploads of the documents?

 

[BoomerPrime]

Okay, so where's the document hosted so we can build our own Fighting Kiwi?

Sadly such an effort is doomed to fail; Kiwis cannot fly

Any re-uploads of the documents?

Nice, try, North Korea...nice try

 

[CuzinEd]

I remember when someone leaked classified documents about the Challenger 2 on there. It's happened more times I know but that's one of the incidents I remember. I think the number of retards that have access to this information is more concerning than the actual leak itself. One of these War Thunder leaks happens pretty often. Of course, the information shown might not be classified at all it just never got officially declassified. I don't know how that works exactly. They could be old documents that got declassified later on they just never got the mark. If not they really need to start weeding out employees that have War Thunder accounts or something.

It's been around since 1974. Something tells me anyone who wanted to know all about it already do.

Yes, it's an old plane. But it has gotten upgrades and things like that since 1974. This stuff would all be new and would definitely be classified. Hell some of the stuff from the 70's and 80's is probably still classified. But anyone who wanted to know about it already does. Like the Russians and Chinese. Hell, the US government probably told the commie chinks. They wouldn't even have to engage in espionage. Looking at planes like the F-16 F-15 and F-18 it's hard to think they are all so old. But they are.

So in this particular instance, it's unlikely any government body really cares, but it does give me a thought.

With how often this games community leaks (I'm sure I see at least one of these articles a month) shit like this, are we eventually going to see world governments rallying to have this game demolished because of the autism the community holds? We've definitely been put under fire for less, and as far as I can tell they're not a Chinese company (unless their parent company is), so they're not immune to that kind of strong arming unless they already have a history of going against it. Leaking military documents definitely seems like something that would piss governments off way more than making fun of trannies.

Gaijin is the developer. They own the game. Gaijin is also a Russian company.

 

[Gottahavemysips]

Why even bother? The only balancing Gaijin gives a fuck about is how to perfectly balance your dopamine cycle to keep you on the edge of having fun and quitting out of boredom. A lot of players willingly trick themselves into thinking it's a realistic game because the reality is there's nothing out there that's really like WT in terms of being simcadey with that many vehicle options. Gaijin knows that and will do whatever the fuck might make them money.

 

[Ego]

Hilariously this is going to be a compounded problem for Gaijin the more and more as they release airframes and tanks that are in active service. Just about every major nation in that game except for Russia has had a leak of some sort and while some have said "ahah Russia must be using Gaijin to farm classified intel of foreign powers!" the real reason Russia is so watertight on this issue is that every Russian vehicle in the game works better than Khrushchev or Putin could have hoped for.

 

[proteus4994]

Yes, it's an old plane. But it has gotten upgrades and things like that since 1974. This stuff would all be new and would definitely be classified. Hell some of the stuff from the 70's and 80's is probably still classified. But anyone who wanted to know about it already does. Like the Russians and Chinese. Hell, the US government probably told the commie chinks. They wouldn't even have to engage in espionage. Looking at planes like the F-16 F-15 and F-18 it's hard to think they are all so old. But they are.

Reminds me of when I worked on submarines. During the time while the bridge was getting a modernization overhaul (redoing the computer system mainly), entrance was very very strictly controlled. Before and after the modernization? Sure, you could just roll into the bridge (assuming you had clearance to be on the sub in the first place). But they did not want anyone seeing exactly what chips they were using, what specifications they had, and so on.

So yeah, just because it was built in the 70s doesn’t mean everything inside of it was built in the 70s

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Well when it comes to these particular documents, any facility that ever worked on maintenance or operations for the F-16 is gonna have copies floating around somewhere, paper and digital. And since its no longer considered restricted, they wouldn't even be paying particular attention or care to whether one up and disappeared. Might not even notice if their particular air base doesn't see F16's come through very often.

In the wider problem space, its the military industrial complex. Huge numbers of contractors touch every aspect of these vehicles, at every level, including wide swathes of documentation. Only takes on person to leak, and they've got thousands if not tens of thousands of people handling them.

Isn't the F16 one of the most exported modern military fighter jets? Even potentially hostile countries like Venezuela and Oman own an operate them. Leaks really shouldn't be surprising. Look at this massive list of operators https://www.f-16.net/f-16_users.html

 

[CuzinEd]

Why even bother? The only balancing Gaijin gives a fuck about is how to perfectly balance your dopamine cycle to keep you on the edge of having fun and quitting out of boredom. A lot of players willingly trick themselves into thinking it's a realistic game because the reality is there's nothing out there that's really like WT in terms of being simcadey with that many vehicle options. Gaijin knows that and will do whatever the fuck might make them money.

Not anymore. A new challenger has appeared.

You don't need World of Tanks War or War Thunder anymore. Break the cycle of abuse. Yeah GHPC might not have WW2 tanks or the huge list of vehicles that WoT and WT have but it's a better game even in Early Access.

Hilariously this is going to be a compounded problem for Gaijin the more and more as they release airframes and tanks that are in active service. Just about every major nation in that game except for Russia has had a leak of some sort and while some have said "ahah Russia must be using Gaijin to farm classified intel of foreign powers!" the real reason Russia is so watertight on this issue is that every Russian vehicle in the game works better than Khrushchev or Putin could have hoped for.

It's not that the Russian equipment is bad. Sure, it doesn't compare to modern Western equipment. But it's not total garbage. The problem for the Russians is that their army is incompetent. That and mixture of being pushed into a war no one really wants to fight. Their army is mostly conscripts anyway. Corruption hasn't helped either. Just look at what's going on in Ukraine. The Ukrainians are using the same stuff as the Russians, and they are getting better results. The reports of the poor condition of the stuff that Russia has been sending into Ukraine is also part of the issue. The stuff in War Thunder is definitely in better condition that the what the Russians are pulling out of their deep long-term storage.

Reminds me of when I worked on submarines. During the time while the bridge was getting a modernization overhaul (redoing the computer system mainly), entrance was very very strictly controlled. Before and after the modernization? Sure, you could just roll into the bridge (assuming you had clearance to be on the sub in the first place). But they did not want anyone seeing exactly what chips they were using, what specifications they had, and so on.

So yeah, just because it was built in the 70s doesn’t mean everything inside of it was built in the 70s

The airframe would be the same but everything else is most likely new. I don't know exactly how new. Old hull new electronics.

 

[Merried Senior Comic]

I wonder why this never happens with DCS. The Viper it has is Block 52 and it seems most everything on it is public knowledge.

 

[Spicey McHaggis]

Lol the War Thunder community's autism really should have already had them a community watch thread here.

Unfortunately about 80% of it is just retards whining about the other nations over and over again. The nationalists begging for their particular tiny country to be added are usually pretty entertaining though. Especially when it's a middle eastern nation and people troll them with suggestions of making it an Isreali sub tree.

 

[Myrtle the Turtle]

Lol the War Thunder community's autism really should have already had them a community watch thread here.

This is the 4th time this has happened.

1. Frances' Leclerc tank
2. UKs Challenger 2 gun position
3. Chinese sabot round specs
4. Now this

I wonder why this never happens with DCS. The Viper it has is Block 52 and it seems most everything on it is public knowledge.

The barriers to entry are lower, you can do WT with a pc or console and play arcade mode with a mouse. Also there are bs shots in their realistic tank mode that cause autistic screeching from the player base.

 

[Rei is Shit.]

Russia likely has all the info it needs on the F-16 though. Far more likely that Gajin underpowers NATO vehicles because if not they would just curbstomp the soviet crap

They get a ton of free advertising every time this happens.