Kongō was a Japanese battleship originally built by the Vickers company in Great Britain and represents the lead ship of a series of advanced capital ships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy prior to the outbreak of WWI. Soon, captains in War Thunder will spot this legendary Japanese warship as it arrives in game with the next major update!

Briefly: A British-built Japanese WWI-era battleship outfitted with an impressive weapons arsenal and capable of attaining a very high top speed.
Features:

• Excellent mobility
  
• Powerful main battery guns
  
• Scout planes
  
• Vulnerable high-calibre fire
  
• Poor long-range AA capability

In War Thunder, the battleship Kongō will be a new top-of-the line heavy warship soon joining the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the arrival of the next major update. Incredibly fast for its class of warship and packing a heavy punch, Kongō will become a valuable asset to any Japanese captain’s naval battle lineup in the upcoming update!

Japanese engineers opted to fit the Kongō with eight massive 14’’ (356 mm) cannons, split between four twin turrets. To complement this powerful primary battery, Kongō’s secondary arsenal consists of eight 6’’(152 mm) cannons mounted in four casemates on either side of the ship’s hull and situated just above the main armor belt. As a result, Kongō is capable of taking on even the most heavily armed and armored battleships of other nations currently present in the game.



Aside from the impressive arsenal Kongō can bring to bear on surface targets, the ship also features an equally expansive suite of dual-purpose weapons. Because Kongō will arrive to the game in its 1944 configuration, the ship’s dual-purpose and anti-aircraft arsenal have been substantially bolstered. Therefore, aspiring captains of Kongō will have an additional six twin 5’’ (127 mm) dual purpose cannons as well as a mind-boggling 100 25 mm AA cannons at their disposal. While such a large number of guns will make it very difficult for pilots and captains of smaller vessels to get too close to Kongō, the ship will remain somewhat exposed to high-altitude attacks due to the limited effectiveness of its dual-purpose weapons.

Fun Fact: Upon entering service, Kongō was among the most advanced warships in the world, rightfully earning its name ‘Indestructible Diamond’ in Japanese.

Despite being somewhat vulnerable to high-altitude attacks, this by no means should imply that the Kongō is a sitting duck. Despite being a battleship, Kongō is in fact able to attain a very impressive speed of 30 knots (59 km/h) thanks to its turbines generating a power output of 136,000 hp. As a result, Kongō can not only quickly reposition itself during a battle, but it can also effectively dodge enemy fire at long range. However, as some enemy fire will inevitably find its target, its danger posed to Kongō is greatly reduced thanks to an 203 mm thick armored belt, 254 mm strong turrets and up to 127 mm of deck armour. However, it's worth noting that despite this Kongō is still susceptible to battleship fire, since its armor can not shield the ship from high-calibre cannons.



Kongō will soon join the top rank of the Japanese naval tree in War Thunder with the arrival of the next major update coming soon. In the meantime, be sure to pay close attention to the news as we continue revealing what other exciting new additions await you in the upcoming update. Until then, calm seas and happy hunting captains!

The LAV-AD is an American SPAA unit, developed on the basis of the highly versatile Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) chassis in the late 1980s. Featuring a devastating arsenal and superb mobility, the LAV-AD will soon join the fight in top ranked ground battles, arriving in War Thunder as part of the next major update “Wind of Change”!

Briefly: An air defence variant of the American LAV combat vehicle, featuring a hybrid arsenal consisting of a 25 mm Gatling cannon and both guided and unguided weapons.

Features:

• High fire rate 25 mm cannon
  
• Stinger missiles
  
• Hydra-70 rockets
  
• Excellent mobility
  
• Amphibious capabilities
  
• Light protection

In War Thunder, the LAV-AD will be a new SPAA unit awaiting veteran tankers at rank VI of the American ground forces tree in the next major update. The LAV-AD certainly isn’t the first SPAA vehicle in War Thunder to feature a hybrid weapons arsenal consisting of, say, a conventional gun and missiles. At the same time however, the LAV-AD will be the first to also throw unguided rockets into the mix, but more on that in a moment. For now, it’s important to note that the LAV-AD’s primary weapon is the GAU-12 ‘Equalizer’ 25mm cannon. Being a Gatling-style rotary gun, the cannon can achieve a rate of fire of 2,200 rounds/min, making it ideally suited to virtually erase any hostile air threats out of existence, particularly helicopters, up to a range of around 4,000 metres. However, to hit even more distant targets or fast-moving jets, the LAV-AD also has access to IR-guided Stinger missiles fired from two quadruple launchers situated on top of the vehicle’s turret.



So far however, the LAV-AD might just sound like an ordinary high-tier SPAA unit which can be found in virtually all nations’ top ranks. However, as mentioned before, the LAV-AD does come with one unique feature not found on similar vehicles in the game currently. Namely, we’re talking about the LAV-AD’s ability to replace one of its Stinger launchers with a rocket pod, thus allowing the vehicle to also launch 19 Hydra-70 unguided rockets. Although originally conceived as a means to extend the LAV’s effective range against helicopters, in our game, tankers are more likely to use the Hydra-70’s good ballistic properties and predictable trajectory to engage hostile armored units. This feature will especially come in handy when the rapid-firing 25mm cannon isn’t powerful enough to fend off a heavily armored threat, such as an MBT.

Another excellent feature of the LAV chassis in general is it’s super mobility, as expected from a light wheeled chassis. Being powered by a 275 horsepower diesel engine, the LAV-AD can reach a top speed of 62.2 mph (100 km/h) on paved roads, with its overall mobility decreasing slightly in off-road conditions. Furthermore, as the LAV chassis is built for the USMC, engineers also gave it amphibious capabilities. In turn, this gives War Thunder tankers more tactical options on battlefields with deep bodies of water, allowing them to potentially strike the enemy from an unexpected position!



The LAV-AD is arriving to the top ranks of the American ground forces tree as part of the next major update “Wind of Change” coming to War Thunder. In the meantime, keep your sights lined up on the news as we continue revealing more details about new additions and features awaiting you in the upcoming update. Until then, happy hunting tankers!

Several updates ago, we introduced Sweden as a playable nation in War Thunder. Initially giving players the opportunity to take control of some unique Swedish aircraft, it was shortly afterwards also expanded by a full ground forces tree allowing tankers to command a whole host of new and exotic combat vehicles used by Sweden. Coming as part of the next major update “Wind of Change”, we’re pleased to announce that Sweden will also be receiving its own helicopter tree, containing several vehicles from a more than 65 year period in which the nation used helicopters as part of its armed forces!

Since Sweden didn’t produce domestic attack helicopter designs, its forces used foreign helicopters, some of which will already be familiar to seasoned pilots in War Thunder. Among the ranks, pilots will encounter domestic versions of some familiar faces, such as French Alouettes, the Italian AB 205, German Bo 105, as well as helicopters being tested and considered for an import, such as American AH-64 Apache. Having such a broad selection of different designs means that each Swedish helicopter will offer unique tactical opportunities. Regardless of whether you fancy delivering surgical strikes against enemy forces and audaciously capturing strategic points with a Bo 105 or if you simply seek to wreak havoc among enemy ranks with a heavily armed Apache, the Swedish helicopter tree has something for you.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American ground attack aircraft developed in the early 1970s by Fairchild Republic and is one of the most recognizable aircraft still in service with the USAF today. Two versions of the iconic ‘Warthog’ will also soon make an appearance in War Thunder, arriving at the top rank of the American aviation tree as part of the next major update “Wind of Change”!

Briefly: A legendary American close air support aircraft, well-known for its simplistic design and deadly effectiveness thanks to its powerful weapons!

Features:

• Deadly GAU-8 ‘Avenger’ cannon
  
• High number and variety of suspended weapons
  
• Good vitality
  
• Subsonic

In War Thunder, the legendary A-10A Thunderbolt II will be a highly anticipated new strike aircraft arriving at the top rank of the American aviation tree as part of the next major update “Wind of Change”. Armed to the teeth with a combination of a high-caliber, high rate of fire 30 mm cannon as well as a plethora of advanced and conventional suspended weapons, the A-10A Thunderbolt II guarantees one thing: top rank battles are about to get a lot more explosive in the upcoming update!

Before we get into details about the ‘brrrts’ and ‘bangs’ carried by the A-10A, it’s worth taking a closer look at the equally impressive aircraft itself. The Thunderbolt II is fitted with a pair of TF34-GE-100A turbofan jet engines, producing 8,900 lbf (4,037 kgf) of thrust each, thus allowing the aircraft to reach a top speed of around 457 mph (736 km/h). While seeming rather lackluster in comparison to most other aircraft found at its rank, some of which even fly above Mach 2, it’s worth pointing out that the A-10A doesn’t have the need to be that fast. Being conceived as a dedicated close air support aircraft, the A-10A’s low top speed gives pilots more time to focus on a given target and execute a precision strike. At the same time, thanks to its lower speed and general design, the Thunderbolt II boasts extremely good maneuverability even when outfitted with large payloads.



Coming back to the subject of the A-10A’s weapons, upon obtaining the aircraft, pilots will instantly gain access to the single weapon system that makes the Thunderbolt II the iconic aircraft that it is. We’re of course talking about the 30 mm GAU-8/A ‘Avenger’ cannon. Notorious for its extremely high rate of fire, going up to a staggering 4,200 rounds/min, the A-10A is capable of virtually shredding enemy targets into bits. This doesn’t just apply to lightly armored targets however, but also for more heavily armored MBTs thanks to the A-10’s very potent AP rounds. That being said, if the destruction inflicted by an A-10’s strafing run doesn’t send the enemy rushing for cover, the terrifying sound that follows shortly after most certainly will!

Fun Fact: The heavily armored bottom part of the A-10’s cockpit cell is often referred to as ‘The Bathtub’ due to its design.

However, a rapid-firing high caliber gun is by far not the only weapon the A-10 can bear on its enemies. In fact, pilots can equip their Thunderbolt II with a range of ordnance options, ranging from powerful guided munitions such as the AIM-9L Sidewinder, AGM-65 Maverick missiles as well as 2,000 lbs GBU-8 guided bombs to more conventional 500 and 2,000 lbs unguided bombs, 20mm gunpods and Hydra-70 rockets. As a result, A-10A pilots will always have the choice between engaging targets directly with the powerful ‘Avenger’ cannon, delivering precision strikes with advanced weapons or striking lightly protected targets with conventional weapons.



However, since the A-10A can’t rely on its speed to quickly enter and exit a combat zone and thus avoid enemy fire or detection altogether, it has to fall back on other means. Fortunately, the A-10A has several defensive features and countermeasures in place to protect itself from hostile fire. These come most notably in the shape of both flares and chaff as well as a radar warning receiver, notifying the pilot of a potential SPAA threat in the combat zone. Apart from these systems the A-10’s cockpit is also protected by heavy titanium armor plating and bulletproof glass, thus further improving the aircraft’s resistance to ground fire, even from larger calibers. Therefore, pilots stand a good chance of avoiding enemy fire in the first place but even if some rounds inevitably find their mark, the aircraft’s good protection and rigid design will ensure it takes a lot more than a few hits to bring it down.

The late production version of the A-10A Thunderbolt II will be part of the US strike aircraft research line, while the early Premium A-10A is available for pre-order now! The difference between the aircraft is only in the armament - the early A-10A carries a maximum of two AIM-9L missiles, while the later one is capable of carrying four. AGM-65D missiles are also available for the late version of the A-10A only, while the premium version operates with AGM-65BMaverick missiles.

We present to you a planned tech tree of the Israeli armored forces to be added to War Thunder in the upcoming major update “Wind of Change”!

This is how the Israeli ground forces tech tree is planned to look like at its start. First tanks, armored vehicles. self-propelled guns and SPAAGs come to War Thunder in the upcoming major update “Wind of Change”!

Since the Israeli army was formed after the end of World War II, research for Israeli ground vehicles will begin immediately from rank IV. All owners of early access packs will be able to take part in closed testing of the Israeli ground forces immediately after the “Wind of Change” update is live. Terms of access for all other players will be published later.

After the end of closed testing, to start researching the Israeli ground forces, the player will need at least one purchased ground vehicle of rank IV (or higher) in any of the following playable nations: USA, USSR, Great Britain, France or Israel.

In the “Wind of Change” major update we will begin the closed beta testing of the Israeli ground forces! Each Early Access Pack guarantees early access to beta testing, and until it starts you will be able to master your crews in all vehicle slots. Early Access Pack vehicles will have 3 free respawns in Arcade and Realistic battles in War Thunder before the “Wind of Change” update is released.

Introducing the next major update teaser for War Thunder - "Wind of Change"

A new location for mixed battles, inspired by the coastal regions in the Middle East!

With the upcoming major update, a new location for mixed battles comes to the game - meet “Sun City”, a location based on the resort towns of the Middle East!

In this location, our artists tried to convey the diversity of landscapes and architecture of the coastal zone of the Middle East. In the centre of the location is a small resort town, with its white houses, bike lanes, bridges and terraces. By the sea is a beach, a wide and mostly open area with golden sand. In the suburbs, there’s a small industrial zone among the blooming fields.


Sun City will be waiting for you in the upcoming War Thunder major update we are working on right now. Don't miss our devblogs and be the first to know about the most interesting things to come. While we are completing the update, you can become one of the first testers of Israeli ground vehicles that will also appear in the game with the release of the next update!

Today we want to talk about the global graphical improvements, 4K/8K game client, and artistic neuronet.
The latest War Thunder vehicle and asset models are created in 4K, or even 8K resolutions, but textures of such sizes significantly increase the size of the game client. In addition, the game has a lot of content created with textures in 2K resolution, for example, some of the aircraft with which War Thunder began its journey back in 2012. But as time goes by, monitor resolutions, hard drive sizes and internet speeds grow, so we want to make the game look better. We are introducing a new ULTRA HD texture pack that brings a higher resolution to War Thunder that meets the standards of modern games. It's time to change for the better, and we are taking this step in the next update of the game!

To move to the new graphics with high resolution textures, we need to rebuild all the textures in the game. Three types of game client will be available for players after the update is released: minimal (minimal size, suitable for trial playing at 720p resolution), standard, with textures of the same resolution as you see them in War Thunder now, suitable for playing at resolutions up to 1080p; and improved, which will bring textures of tanks, planes, helicopters and elements of the game environment to 4K/8K resolutions, and which is suitable for playing at Ultra-HD (1440/2160p). Unfortunately, even players who prefer to use standard or minimal clients, will have to download a rather large update once, with the release of the upcoming update. This is required for the technical features of the transition to high-resolution global rendering, as well as improved technology for creating land surfaces that also requires rebuilding most of the textures of the game environment.

Players who wish to upgrade to UHD textures will be prompted to download additional game data that will be installed after the standard client. The same option for selecting texture quality will be available to owners of new generation game consoles as free DLC (make sure you have enough space and 4K support). For previous generation consoles, the client with high-res textures will not be available due to lack of memory in the consoles.

Most of the textures of ship models, tanks and up-to-date elements of the game environment do not require any modifications to go into ultra-high resolution format - they were originally created in 4K and 8K formats, and then compressed to save disk space. However, things are different with aircraft textures. The fact is that most of the War Thunder aircraft textures were created in direct relation to the dimensions of the models, which means that we do not have these files in the sizes necessary for high-quality display in high resolution. There was only one way out: redo all the textures for most of the aircraft in the game! It would take several years for our artists to complete such a task, even with the help of partner studios (one plane is at least 8 texture maps, apart from cockpit textures. Gaijin programmers came to the rescue, creating a neural network that was taught how to scale textures based on a complex analysis of the original image, and the network was trained precisely on the textures of War Thunder vehicles. The essence of the technology lies in the fact that artificial intelligence analyzes image areas and individual pixels in them and supplements the image with new pixels. The resolution increases, thus improving the quality of the final texture.

The neuronet processed the textures of aircraft, helicopters, instrument panels and the interior of cockpits, as well as environmental elements in the locations - the textures of buildings, rocks, sidewalks and cobblestone pavements, curbs, palisades, and many others. Artificial intelligence did an excellent job - the quality of all textures in the game has increased significantly without loss of detail. We noticed only one aspect of the neural network algorithms in the processing of the smallest technical inscriptions on the fuselages of aircraft. These service marks for ground services were not readable before, but after processing by the neuronet, their shape became bizarre, reminiscent of the Elvish script from Tolkien's works - the neural network doesn’t know specific languages. However, all more or less significant inscriptions, marks and decals on the hulls and fuselages of the vehicles remained perfectly readable, so we consider this assumption quite acceptable. together with a significantly increased quality of textures in general. Corrections of such inscriptions will require manual work, which we will be carrying out over future updates.
You will first meet the ultra high-quality War Thunder in the upcoming open dev testing session of the next major update. Scalable textures, new surface rendering, as well as numerous improvements and fixes will be brought to the game by the updated graphic engine; Dagor Engine v. 6.5. The Gaijin dev team are polishing them right now in order for you to have a chance to test them and leave your feedback. More devblogs about graphic features of the War Thunder major update are on the way - and you’d better not to miss them!

Fans of sports competitions freeze in anticipation of the football referee’s whistle. Step into the shoes of a football tank commander and hit the opponents' goal. This is the first of two popular events that not only return, but get better with valuable rewards for participants and winners!




In this event, rewards will be given for goals and assists. The more points you score during the entire event, the more prizes you will get!

Silver decorations for 10, 50 and 100 goals and assists.
Coupon for gold decorations for 300, 600 and 1000 goals and assists.

Coupon for one of the decals: "Dragons" Team banner or "Tigers" Team banner for 200 and 400 goals and assists.

Coupon for the football camouflage for the M551 for 500 and 800 goals and assists.

• M551: Football camouflage "Tiger"
  
• M551: Football camouflage "Dragon"

PlayStation and Xbox players can exchange each coupon they receive for 100 Warbonds.

You can track your progress by clicking on “Nickname → Achievements → A fiery ball”.
The main stage begins at 16:00 GMT on the 11th of March. From that point on, every goal and assist in the event will bring you points. More points means more valuable rewards.

Before the main stage, you can participate in the training event.

“A fiery ball” is available in the events 3x3 (for random players, not in a squad) and 4x4 (for squads).

Participation is possible in the following time windows: 16:00-21:00 GMT and 00:00-05:00 GMT. Matches that have already begun will be finished even after the end of the gaming window and all the points earned in them will be counted.
The match has 2 regular 5 minute halves each. In the case of a draw, players will get 2 additional periods of 1.5 minutes each. If the results after two additional periods is still a draw - the victory will not be awarded to any team.
To win in the 3x3 match prematurely it is necessary to achieve a 3 goal advantage.
To win in the 4x4 match prematurely it is necessary to achieve a 5 goal advantage.
Every day for your first victory in the “Fiery ball” event you will get a battle trophy with one of the random prize out of possible one:

• 3-5 universal backup vehicles
  
• 20-50% RP booster for 3-10 battles
  
• 20-50% SL booster for 3-10 battles
  
• Random wager
  
• Random order

You can track the status of your daily trophy by clicking on “Nickname → Achievements → A fiery ball → Daily reward“. You can get a new trophy from 16:00 GMT the following day.

In this digest we would like to tell you about our continuing work on improvements and fixes in the game. You can find information about all updates that have been released in War Thunder on the website special section.



Recently every artillery strike in ground battles began with a few hits of targeting smoke: this mechanic allowed lighter vehicles to react in time to the fire and try to escape. But in the original implementation the smoke markers were rather bright and stood out too much.

In its updated form they will fit much better into the overall colour picture of a battle and the quality of the detailing of the effect itself has been increased. You can check it out already!



It is very difficult to navigate through almost 2,000 game units, if not just the detailed cards for shells, missiles and of course the vehicles themselves. The data from these built-in War Thunder reference cards is almost always calculated within the game and unfortunately there was an error in this process.

This time we found the issue that affected more than dozen vehicles and caused an error in the displaying of their armour thickness. Although the problem applied only to the cards and the initial thickness in battles was counted correctly we fixed the bug for many different vehicles from different nations: Т-34-57, Т-34-57 (1943), Т-34 (1st Gv.T.Br.), Т-34 (1943), Type 62, Type 62 (USSR), T26E5, Strv m/41 S-I, Centurion Mk.5/1 (RAAC), Т-10А, Т-10М, BT-5, RBT-5, 9P149, 9P157, Sturer Emil, VK 45.01 (P), FIAT 6614, Tortoise, A.C.IV, M15 CGMC and M3 GMC.



This was also a bug and occured when trying to zoom in from the 3rd person view (commander view). The gun aiming marker shifted slightly and disrupted aiming. This annoying problem is already a thing of the past!

• Strv m/40L, Strv m/39 — coaxial machine guns Ksp m/36 have been changed to Ksp m/39.
  
• Type-10 — hull tilt angles have been corrected while the suspension control is enabled (report).
  
• Type-10 — pivot speed has been increased.
  
• VEAK 40 — vehicles in test drive have been changed to modern ones.
  
• PT-16/T14 — targeting limits of the AA machine gun have been corrected to avoid shooting through the elements of the turret top.
  
• Bkan 1C — 3rd person view camera position has been fixed.
  
• T-34-57, T-34-57 (1943), T-34 (1 Gv.T.Br.), Т-34 (1943), Type 62, Type 62 (USSR), T26E5, Strv m/41 S-I, Centurion Mk.5/1 (RAAC), T-10A, Т-10M, BT-5, RBT-5, 9P149, 9P157, Sturer Emil, VK 45.01 (P), FIAT 6614, Tortoise, A.C.IV, M15 CGMC, M3 GMC — Armour values in the info card have been corrected.
  
• Type 87 RCV — gear select ratios have been specified.
  
• Type 87 — gunner sight magnification has been specified.
  
• Grant I, Grant I (USA) — the thickness of the armour plate below the 75mm gun has been fixed from 12.7 mm to 22,2 mm.
  
• AS 42 — gun recoil has been removed.
  
• Targeting marker tilt, occurring after zooming in  while in 3rd person view in SB, has been fixed.
  
• VT1-2, Strv 103-0, Strv 103A, Strv 103С — vehicle movement has been fixed, while looking around with a mouse with hull control enabled.

• Etendard IVM - calculator for the constantly computed impact point (CCIP) for bombs has been added (report)
  
• Sa`ar - a bug has been fixed where in some cases wing components might remain on the wing tips when the wings are torn off.
  
• Firebrand TF.Mk.IV - separate rocket launch has been added for the setup of “2х 250lbs G.P. Mk.IV bomb + RP-3 rockets”
  
• ITP (М-1) - separate rocket launch has been added for the RS-82 and RBS-82 rockets
  
• Kfir C.7 - launch order has been corrected for the Zuni Mk32 Mod 0 ATAP rockets.

• USS Candid - display for the first stage ammo count has been corrected for the 76mm gun.
  
• Explosives type of the British AP and semi-AP round has been changed for the following guns:
  
• -343mm/45 Mk 5(H) - from Lyddite to Shellite
  
• -152mm/45 BL Mk XII - from Lyddite to TNT
  
• -152mm/50 BL Mk XXIII - from Lyddite to TNT
  
• -152mm/50 QF Mk N5 - from Lyddite to TNT
  
• -190mm/45 BL Mk VI - from Lyddite to TNT
  
• TNT equivalent of the Shellite has been corrected to 0.94.

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.