A 700-page PDF spills the beans about the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7, an Italian version of a fighter jet used by various European and Middle Eastern countries.
The post, now removed by War Thunder forum moderators, emerged in a thread over a month old, discussing whether the aircraft should join the game’s lineup. A fan felt it vital for the plane to be correctly represented, hence sharing the confidential document.
A likely exhausted moderator responded, “Do not post the DA.7 manuals,” while also outlining Gaijin’s (the War Thunder developer’s) guidelines on sharing restricted content.
To sum it up, the rules specify, “You are not allowed to publish any Classified information and Export-restricted military-technical data other than Declassified information.”
However, this situation is more of a minor slip than a major breach.
The data is mostly labeled as “NATO restricted”, and the document is available for purchase online, although on a Russian site and a platform called Flight Manuals Online. The origins of these public postings remain unclear, yet NATO doesn’t seem overly concerned about the information.
According to military expert and former high-ranking NATO artillery officer Pierre Henrot, NATO nations have been supplying weapons to Ukraine since the onset of the conflict with Russia. However, a significant portion of these armaments is antiquated and has remained unused for many years.
War Thunder, a well-liked multiplayer game where detailed aircraft, armored vehicles, and warships clash, has a track record with classified information.
In January 2023, a game enthusiast uploaded restricted files linked to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and its AIM-120 air-to-air missiles. The data was old but still restricted.
Within a day, it recurred: a forum member, keen to prove a point about the F-15 Eagle, distributed a more extensive dataset encompassing weaponry, avionics, and targeting details.
Both posts got removed, and back then, Konstantin Govorun, in charge of public relations at Gaijin Entertainment, stated the company closely monitors such troublesome sharing.
“We always delete all classified or restricted data as soon as possible, that’s our rule, and we clearly tell our users that they should never post this in the first place,” Govorun said.
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