War Thunder News

Israeli Helicopters

In the upcoming Danger Zone update, Israeli helicopters come to War Thunder! A few words on history, initial line-up and the first look on the new to the game light attack helicopter MD 500 TOW.

In 1975 the Israeli Air Force received its first batch of 6 American Bell AH-1G Cobra strike helicopters, previously used in Vietnam. Israeli pilots enthusiastically began to master a new type of military aircraft and nicknamed the American helicopters Tzefa - “Palestine viper” - after the largest poisonous snake in the region. A little later, the AH-1G was replaced by the AH-1S equipped with anti-tank missiles, and the Hughes MD500 TOW light helicopters, also equipped with ATGMs to destroy armored vehicles. Israeli attack helicopters received a baptism of fire in 1979 where they were widely used in battle in the First Lebanon War, showing a high combat efficiency. The last helicopters of the AH-1 series were retired from service in 2013.

Despite the active use of combat helicopters and a highly advanced military industry, Israel does not consider developing its own combat helicopters. At the moment, the IAF operates various versions of the American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

Israeli helicopters come to the game in the Danger Zone update. You will meet not only familiar AH-1G, AH-1Q and AH-1F Cobras, excellent high-rank Apaches, including the premium Peten. The Hughes MD500 TOW light attack helicopter will first appear in the Israeli tech tree. This five-blade rotor light, tiny and very agile helicopter capable of carrying the venerable TOW and TOW-2 anti-tank missiles, as well as Hydra-70 unguided rockets.

Israeli helicopters will become helpful assistants for armored vehicles in War Thunder mixed battles and will surely perform well in the helicopter gaming modes. The update is coming soon! Stay tuned!

Update 2.15.1.146

[h2]Ground vehicles[/h2]

In the marker-less game modes, 1st generation ATGMs do not fall on the ground anymore when switching to binoculars.
Sho't — a bug has been fixed with the minimal gun depression angle over the engine compartment. The minimal angle has been corrected from +5 to 0 degrees (report)

[h2]Aircraft[/h2]

F-104S.ASA — a bug has been fixed with a missed gun in custom weapon presets in xray mode.
F-4C Phantom II — a bug has been fixed where the belly-mounted gun was displayed in the xray mode instead of installed wing gun pods.

[h2]Other[/h2]

Initial speed of attacker and bomber aircraft in Ground Arcade battles has been increased (fighters’ speed remains):
- from 600 to 680 kph in sessions of BR 7.3 — 9.7;
- from 700 to 800 kph in sessions of BR 10+.
Aircraft setup in Ground Arcade battles has been updated:
- IL-28Sh and Me 262 C-2b — have been removed in session of BR 7.3 — 8.3;
- AH-1S early and BO 105 PAH-1 — have been removed in sessions of BR 8.0 — 9.0;
- UH-1D (Germany) — a bug has been fixed with incorrect weapons in the setup with unguided rockets.

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

Classified military intel somehow posted to War Thunder forums for third time

Somehow, some classified military documents have appeared on the forums for War Thunder, for the third time.

You could maybe, somehow, just about justify the fact that some military documents were shared on a forum dedicated to a war-sim game. That happening a second time? OK, well, clearly these things happen, but we should probably keep them under wraps a bit better, no? However, as reported by the UK Defence Journal, this has happened for a third time, on this occasion regarding a Chinese piece of hardware.

According to UK Defence Journal, images appeared online May 31 showing off a Chinese DTC10-125 tungsten penetrator, sat on top of a document that detailed the projectile. The document goes into some technical malarkey that most people wouldn't care about, except for the person who shared the document in an attempt to correct an issue with its in-game counterpart.

Scoring parameters in helicopter PvE mode have been corrected:
- Minimal point multiplier for damage, critical damage, destruction and destruction assist, whilst taking into account the BR of the player and enemy vehicles, has been increased by 400%;
- Point multiplier for damage and destruction of enemy bases has been reduced by ~ 54.5%.
A bug has been fixed where the base durability in the “City” mission for helicopter PvE mode was lower than in other missions.

Napalm comes to War Thunder!

In the Danger Zone update we are going to introduce a new type of weapon - incendiary air bombs! Details about napalm and its damage - inside!

In our game, incendiary mixtures will be a new type of weapon that will be available for high rank aviation. In the Danger Zone update, some types of American and Soviet-made incendiary bombs for the American, German, Soviet, Israeli and Chinese aircraft will appear in the game. In the future, we will add new types of incendiary bombs for aviation of different gaming nations.

So how does napalm work in War Thunder? Incendiary bombs can be mounted on the aircraft in the weapon menu after researching a corresponding modification. As a rule, napalm can be taken along with other types of armament. Dropping incendiary bombs is exactly the same as dropping a conventional high-explosive bomb. If the aircraft is equipped with a ballistic bomb calculator, you will also see the drop point in RB and SB. Upon impact, an incendiary mixture is spilled over an area and ignited. The burning mixture sticks to the surfaces in the location, including wet mud, puddles even water surfaces. Napalm deals damage to open-top armored vehicles, affecting the crew members. Light armored vehicles and tires of wheeled vehicles are burned as if they were on fire, i.e. a vehicle receives some damage every second. The damage to ships and boats when napalm spills on the deck is also similar to the damage from a fire. Aircraft hit by an incendiary mixture on the ground are destroyed almost immediately.

The ignited mixture continues to burn for some time, charring trees and grass. If the open-top or wheeled vehicles drive into the area during a fire, they receive damage similar to fire damage.

Napalm has many interesting tactical applications in battles. For example, you can protect a point captured by your team from being captured by enemy scouts. You can spill campers in bushes and thickets. You can pour napalm in one of the directions of movement of the enemy team in order to damage light vehicles or even temporarily block this passage through the location for them. In air battles, incendiary mixtures are very handy for destruction of AI convoys.

Check out the full list of aircraft with incendiary bombs in the changelog for the upcoming Danger Zone update. It is almost done. We'll fire it up soon!