According to a report by Task and Purpose (a website specializing in the US military), this latest incident involves the M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, an AIFV that first entered service with the US military in 1981.
Two pages from Bradley’s technical manual, with details on the commander’s hatch, turret assembly and impact liner – the lining inside an armored vehicle designed to reduce damage caused when armor is broken piercing – was posted to the “Machinery of War” forum War Thunder. This document was taken down by moderators after just “a few minutes”.
The document in question isn’t actually classified, but it is restricted and accessible only to specifically noted people or groups, including Department of Defense and DoD contractors. That said, in case the information isn’t clear enough (and it doesn’t seem to be), sharing it on the War Thunder forums is a no-go; Accordingly, the user who posted the material has been banned from Machinery of War.
Anton Yudintsev, founder of Gaijin Entertainment, the company behind War Thunder, said in a statement: “There was a post containing classified or restricted information regarding Bradley on December 12. Our moderation team acted according to protocol: they removed the material within minutes, banned the user permanently, and re-explained the rules to other players.”
“While we have made every effort to respond quickly in situations like this and educate users about the consequences, no social media platform can completely prevent users from posting content.” They can do this on War Thunder forums, Reddit, Discord, Twitter… The main difference here is how strictly the platform is moderated and how quickly information is deleted. The War Thunder forum is certainly one of the strictest forums on Earth in that regard.”
And in this case, the leaked information was apparently floating around Reddit and Discord before finding its way to the War Thunder forums. “It was published online on December 8 or even earlier and had been circulating on various platforms for days until appearing on the War Thunder forum,” Yudintsev told Task and Purpose. “While we helped limit the leak from spreading further by removing that post, we can’t do anything about what’s going out on other platforms.”
Secret documents about the Challenger 2 Tank were posted on the War Thunder forum to prove that they designed it incorrectly.
That might explain why the leaker thought posting the Bradley documents was okay: Since no one was doing anything with them on other sites, it seemed reasonable to assume they were safe to read. share. But by now, anyone who plays War Thunder should know better: Gaijin has a pretty consistent record of being cautious when handling official military documents. Yet, for some reason, their gamers continue to do it – in the past two years alone, this forum has seen document leaks related to:
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Challenger 2 tank
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Leclerc tank
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Anti-tank bullet DTC10-125
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F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighter
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F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter
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Eurofighter Typoon DA7 multirole fighter aircraft
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F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft
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AH-64D Longbow attack helicopter
Documents about the AH-64D Longbow, Eurofighter Typhoon and F117 Nighthawk were posted on the War Thunder forum without anyone noticing, except the forum administrators.
There’s more – Task and Purpose says the Bradley leak is the 14th time War Thunder players have done so just to prove themselves right in an argument. Incidents like this seem to have become a tradition for War Thunder gamers. Perhaps, the game’s developers should put a banner on their forum stating: If you own a military hardware manual, do not post it on the War Thunder forum.
