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Marking the seventeenth case – that we know of – of War Thunder players leaking secret documents to win online arguments or push developers to make in-game air, ground, and sea vehicles more realistic, yet another player has accidentally posted classified information on the game's forum – once again proving that the meme about the War Thunder community being one of the best sources of restricted military intel exists for a reason.
As reported by UK Defence Journal, a player uploaded a section from a NATOPS manual for the AV-8B and TAV-8B Harrier, a ground-attack aircraft capable of vertical or short takeoff and landing, used by the United States Marine Corps, the Spanish Navy, and the Italian Navy.
The caveat is that the manual is marked "Distribution Statement C," meaning it's not approved for public release and is restricted to authorized US government personnel and contractors. While the document has allegedly been floating around online for some time and isn't exactly top secret or never-before-seen material, it still violated War Thunder forum rules and was quickly taken down, with the original poster slapped with a temporary ban.
"This probably isn't the biggest leak ever, not at all. These kinds of manuals float around online, especially older ones," a former RAF engineer told UK Defence Journal. "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."
Previously, War Thunder players also shared restricted or classified materials on the Challenger 2 tank, the Leclerc tank, the ZTZ-99 tank, the UHT-665 Eurocopter Tiger helicopter, F-16 and F-15E fighter jets, the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jet, the Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jet, the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7 fighter jet, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft, the Boeing AH-64D Apache helicopter, the Norinco VT-4 tank, the M2A2 Bradley IFV, T-90M, T-90S, and T-80BVM tanks, and twice on the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. You can find the full, comprehensive list over here.
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