Computer games players published the secrets of American fighter aircraft

The perfectionists of online games that debate the exact design of their favorite weapon have unwittingly re-enlisted military secrets on the internet, this time publishing sensitive information on two separate occasions in just one week about American F-16 and F-15 aircraft.

The game in question is War Thunder, whose players have previously released several potentially classified parts for Britain'sallenger-2 battle tank, French Leclerc tank and China's antitank grenades DTC10-125, among other things. Recent findings concern F-16 Fighting Falcon, built by US defense contractor General Dynmics, and McDonell Douglas F-15E Eagle Strike.

Like other leaks, these appeared at a War Thunder discussion forum, where real world online players often bypass the accuracy of their alleged military equipment, it reported. PC Gamer. In a discussion about the F-16 that has dragged on since the middle of 2022, a player wrote on January 16th for “an interesting thing that I found in my research”.

While the comment itself is not too sensitive, the player -- known as thespacenavy90 -- joined a document to confirm his claims regarding radar-led missiles AIM-120 and the aircraft's cabin control panel. The document has limited distribution authority, according to the forum moderator.

Just two days after that, another forum member, Ranch Sauce39, reportedly published a collection of software manuals from the Flight Operations Programme for F-15E, including details on its flight controls, targeting and weapons systems.

As in similar cases involving other weapons systems, sensitive information was removed after being reported by a moderator and game developer. The distribution of limited military data to unauthorized countries, such as an online game forum, could result in civil or criminal penalties.

War Thunder, which was developed by Gaijin Entainment, a Budapest-based company of different Russian origin, allows players to fight each other using historical and modern military equipment. Many of the players drawn by the game are obsessed with accuracy and pressure game designers to take every detail properly in some cases by supporting their arguments with limited materials, such as the classified Challenger-2 manual that was divided in July 2021.

“We always remove posts containing classified or restricted information from our forum as soon as possible,” said Gaius in a statement for PC Gamer. We forbid our users to share such documents on our platforms. We remind our users constantly that this is also illegal and meaningless, so they should never do it. We never use such documents in our work”.

Meanwhile, the player promised that “would be more careful about the technical information I submit,” said Spacenavy90 for PC Gamer. “We hope to leave this case behind”.