Skip to main content PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES Search PC Gamer View Profile Movies & TV Gaming Industry PC Gaming Show Newsletter Signup Community Guidelines Affiliate Links Meet the team About PC Gamer Essential Hardware PC Gaming Show Dune: Awakening Recommended reading As war looms in the Middle East, clips of Arma 3 and War Thunder are being used as propaganda, and even the Israeli military's having to clarify 'the footage is fake' 'Trust continues to be tampered with': A thread about SBMM in the upcoming Battlefield game is the final straw as an EA community manager lets loose on leakers The Battlefield subreddit is an endless feed of leaked Battlefield 6 gameplay, and it might be the best marketing campaign of 2025 After raising over $800 million from its community, Star Citizen's developer delays the release of a new ship upgrade as players baulk at having to pay for it Third Person Shooter Civil war breaks out in Helldivers 2 as players spawn infinite mechs to crash each other's games Third Person Shooter Helldivers 2 Chinese community valiantly holds the line to save 'Super China,' then flogs Arrowhead with negative Steam reviews for capping liberty at 99.9783% Russia says it won't arrest players after seizing the studio behind the Russian World of Tanks offshoot, accusing it of funnelling funds to Ukraine War Thunder War Thunder players have done it again: Yet another restricted document is leaked to win a forum argument Rich Stanton 24 June 2025 "We all know the Harriers are terribly incorrect." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Gaijin Entertainment) It's a day ending in "y" so you know what that means: as per tradition, military documentation not cleared for public release has once more been posted on the War Thunder forums in order to win an argument about a piece of hardware. If this sounds familiar, maybe it's because you've previously read about leaks involving the Eurofighter Typhoon and F117 Nighthawk, or the M2A2 Bradley. A brief primer: War Thunder is developed by Gaijin Entertainment, a free-to-play military sim with real-world hardware from various eras. The game's schtick is realism and attention to detail, which attracts a considerably knowledgeable crowd of enthusiasts, including military personnel, who like to argue over the veracity of how the game simulates various vehicles. Which is how we end up with things like a June 21 thread titled "All Harrier 2 missing extreme maximum G factor," where a War Thunder player called MatrixRupture decided to take the red pill. "We all know the Harriers are terribly incorrect," they begin. "Since the AV-8B manuals have been opened to be shared let's take a look… All that needs to change is the out-of-balance motion." Related Articles As war looms in the Middle East, clips of Arma 3 and War Thunder are being used as propaganda, and even the Israeli military's having to clarify 'the footage is fake' 'Trust continues to be tampered with': A thread about SBMM in the upcoming Battlefield game is the final straw as an EA community manager lets loose on leakers The Battlefield subreddit is an endless feed of leaked Battlefield 6 gameplay, and it might be the best marketing campaign of 2025 The text was accompanied by source material, in this case a page from the NATOPS AV-8B and TAV-8B Harrier flight manual. Community Manager Smin1080p_WT was on it instantly: these people have been here before. The material was immediately removed, the OP temporarily banned, and the thread locked with the following familiar statement: "The source you attempted to post is NOT cleared for public use and is very clearly marked 'DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT C' [on] its front cover. No source material that is restricted, export restricted or classified will ever be tolerated, handled or used in any way on any of our platforms." This is accompanied by a link to the War Thunder rules on posting source material, which is the top-stickied post atop the most popular of the game's forums: not that it seems to make much difference. War Thunder's "Restrictions on Classified and Export Restricted information" are mere guidelines for this fanbase. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The community reaction to the material being posted is either amusement of the "we did it again boys" variety, or players harrumphing over the distinction between classified documents and something marked with "Distribution Statement C," which means it's restricted to authorised US government personnel and contractors. (Image credit: Gaijin Entertainment) It is true that certain War Thunder leaks have been way more serious than others in terms of classification, and some of them have involved posting material that can be found relatively easily online. But you can almost feel Gaijin's community managers banging their collective heads against a wall at this point, just muttering "don't post any restricted material" over and over and over again. At least there's no regional bias though. The Harrier material takes its place in a proudly global tradition, with previous leaks including documentation for US aircraft like the F-16, F-15E, and F-117, China’s ZTZ-99, the Eurocopter Tiger and Eurofighter Typhoon, the UK’s Challenger 2 tank, and France’s Leclerc. Gotta win those forum arguments about turret movement range. "This probably isn’t the biggest leak ever, not at all," a former RAF engineer told the UK Defence Journal. "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." Every time this happens, Gaijin Entertainment eventually gives the community some sort of reminder that such material will never be used to alter in-game vehicles. But it always falls on deaf ears. It has once again been 0 days since restricted military material has leaked on the War Thunder forums: see you again soon. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releases Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together Rich Stanton Senior Editor Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike." 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As war looms in the Middle East, clips of Arma 3 and War Thunder are being used as propaganda, and even the Israeli military's having to clarify 'the footage is fake' 'Trust continues to be tampered with': A thread about SBMM in the upcoming Battlefield game is the final straw as an EA community manager lets loose on leakers The Battlefield subreddit is an endless feed of leaked Battlefield 6 gameplay, and it might be the best marketing campaign of 2025 After raising over $800 million from its community, Star Citizen's developer delays the release of a new ship upgrade as players baulk at having to pay for it Civil war breaks out in Helldivers 2 as players spawn infinite mechs to crash each other's games Helldivers 2 Chinese community valiantly holds the line to save 'Super China,' then flogs Arrowhead with negative Steam reviews for capping liberty at 99.9783% Latest in Games Who needs Bethesda? 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