The M1A2 SEP is the first of a series of upgrade packages developed for the American Abrams MBT in the late 1990s. Coming to War Thunder as part of the next major update “Fire and Ice”, veteran U.S. tankers may look forward to the arrival of one of the most advanced iterations of the Abrams MBT also featuring the TUSK field kit!

Briefly: An advanced modification of the M1 Abrams tank, featuring improved firepower and protection.


Features:

• Improved thermal imaging
  
• TUSK add-on armor kit

In War Thunder, the M1A2 SEP TUSK will be the new crown jewel awaiting veteran tankers at the top of the American ground forces tree in the next major update “Fire and Ice”. Bringing with it a slew of improvements, predominantly in the area of protection, this new Abrams modification will noticeably augment the platform’s fighting capabilities and will be a ‘must-have’ for fans of modern ground vehicles!

Although simply being a further development of the M1A2 Abrams, the SEP upgrade package provides the vehicle with several handy improvements, including an improved thermal vision. However, what likely already stood out to tankers on the pictures provided in this devblog, is the ‘TUSK’ kit fitted to the vehicle. So let’s get into more details on this then, shall we?





The TUSK kit significantly improves the M1A2’s protection in urban fighting environments. While originally designed to improve protection and survivability against infantry threats in close quarter fighting, this doesn’t mean that the kit is useless in vehicle combat! Namely, the TUSK kit provides the M1A2 with ERA blocks on the sides of the hull. As a result, the M1A2 SEP is more likely to survive an ATGM or HEAT-FS strike with only minor sustained damage.

However, due to the increased weight that comes with the installation of the TUSK kit, the M1A2 SEP’s power-to-weight ratio decreased accordingly. As a result, commanders should expect the vehicle to respond a bit slower to movement commands compared to previous modifications. On the other hand, this won’t impede the vehicle’s mobility to such a great extent. Lastly, the M1A2 SEP still retains its classic M256 120mm smoothbore cannon as its primary armament, known to tankers from previous modifications.





The M1A2 SEP TUSK will soon be arriving at the top of the American ground forces tree as part of the next major War Thunder update “Fire and Ice”. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye out on the news for more sneak-peeks into what the upcoming update has in store for you. Until then, happy hunting tankers!

In the upcoming War Thunder “Fire and Ice” update, we plan to introduce lineups of Finnish aircraft and ground vehicles as part of the Swedish tech tree!

The armed forces of Finland began to develop rapidly immediately after the country declared independence in 1917. In 1928, the army purchased the first three Gloster Gamecock biplanes; in the early 1930s, Finland obtained the first tanks and armored cars imported from foreign countries. The first full-fledged military conflict that the Finnish army took part in was the Winter War against the USSR, and a year after the signing of peace, the Finns counterd the Soviet Union again, this time as part of the Axis coalition. After the end of World War II, Finland took part in peacekeeping missions and military campaigns of the West, including Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.



Since the Finns considered it too expensive to create a domestic military industry, most of the combat vehicles, both aerial and ground, are imported. Finnish lineups bring a huge variety to the Swedish vehicle setups for all game modes. T-34, Pz. IV, Pvkv II and Bf 109 in one setup? Easy! Drive out in a Swedish Strv 103, then take a British Vampire with bombs, and complete the battle in a Soviet T-54? As you wish!

In addition to the machines already familiar to players, the Finnish lineup offers vehicles yet unique to the game. The British Vickers Mk. E light tanks have found little use in their homeland, but were wellcome by foreign operators, including Finland. The BT-42 is an odd but very interesting conversion of captured Soviet BT-7s into an SPG with a British 4.5-inch howitzer and a turret of a domestic design. These vehicles are work-in-progress, and we plan to introduce them in the upcoming updates.

Finnish aircraft, tanks, and self-propelled guns will be a great help to Swedish tankers and pilots! Stay tuned for the full list of new vehicles by the release of the next big update - it comes very soon!

Prepare yourself for the arrival of winter warriors!

The Bosvark is a South African wheeled SPAAG, developed in the late 1990s on the back of the SAMIL-100 truck chassis. Soon, fans of the South African ground vehicles can look forward to the arrival of the Bosvark in the British ground forces tree, coming to War Thunder as part of the next major update “Fire and Ice”!

Briefly: A lightly armoured South African wheeled SPAAG, featuring excellent mobility and deadly firepower.


Features:

• Rapid-firing 23mm cannons
  
• Superb mobility
  
• Light protection
  
• Unable to fire forward

In War Thunder, the Bosvark will be a new South African SPAAG awaiting British tankers at rank IV in the next major update “Fire and Ice”. Sharing many fundamental design choices to the already familiar Ystervark, the Bosvark can in many ways be considered its upscaled evolution despite the vehicles not sharing a common development history.

Being a far larger platform, the Bosvark is fitted with the twin ZU-23-2 turret, familiar to some Soviet tankers from the BTR-ZD, introduced in a previous update. Featuring an excellent rate of fire and favourable ballistic properties makes this gun platform an ideal choice for engaging low-flying aircraft as well as lightly armoured ground vehicles. However, one thing which aspiring commanders will have to bear in mind though, is the relatively limited magazine capacity of the ZU-23-2. As a result, gunners will need to be veary of their trigger discipline in order to avoid having to reload in an unfavourable time as each cannon only has a 50-round magazine which gets spent quickly due to the guns’ high rate of fire.

Fun Fact: The Bosvark received its name after the South African bushpig, which is armed with impressive tusks used to digging up roots and self-defence against predators.

On the flip side of the coin however, the Bosvark is only equipped with the lightest form of protection for itself and its crew. While the driver’s cabin is encased in a thin veil of 10mm steel armour plating, the fighting deck toward the rear of the vehicle is completely exposed, thus leaving the crew vulnerable to shrapnel, machine gun fire as well as strafing runs by aircraft. Furthermore, unlike the Ystervark, the Bosvark is a far bigger platform and thus also much more difficult to conceal from prying enemy eyes. As a result, aspiring commanders of this machine are best advised to take up a position in the second line and support advancing allies by providing them with anti-air protection. Alternatively, keeping a close watch on the flanks for advancing hostile fast movers is another great way to assist your team and score ground frags in the process!





Meet the Bosvark SPAAG in the upcoming War Thunder major update “Fire and Ice”, coming soon to rank IV of the British ground forces tree. In the meantime, make sure to stay tuned to the news in order not to miss out on the latest developments regarding the upcoming major update. Until then, happy hunting tankers!

On October 13th, 1775, at the very beginning of the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress passed a resolution to create a Navy whose goal was to attack British ships near the American coastline. This first fleet was disbanded after the war, but the date remained in history, and now, while the US Navy is the largest in the entire world, it celebrates its birthday on October 13th.





“Famous Ships: USS Constitution” decal

Complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions and [Assault] mode. Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → Battle for Britain Day.


You can find the decal in the “Holidays” tab in the Customisation menu.


During the event the USS Cowell destroyer will be available for purchase for Golden Eagles.

Fusō is the lead ship of a pair of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy before and completed during WWI. Despite being a pre-WWI design, Fusō served throughout the interwar period and in WWII thanks to modernization and is about to embark on new campaigns after its arrival in War Thunder in the next major update!

Briefly: A Japanese WWI-era battleship, built to outmatch other contemporary battleships through the use of superior firepower.


Features:

• Devastating large-caliber guns
  
• Good armor protection
  
• Numerous AA weapons
  
• Low mobility

In War Thunder, Fusō will be a new battleship coming to the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the release of the next major update. Coming to the game in its late WWII refit, Fusō packs some serious firepower thanks to its numerous large and medium caliber guns, while at the same time bristling with short-range anti-air weapons and also featuring strong armor protection, typical for this class of warship!

Fusō’s primary armament consists of an impressive six twin 14’’ (356 mm) turrets, evenly distributed down the entire length of the ship. Possessing good firing angles and equally respectable ballistic properties, Fusō is capable of inflicting tremendous damage upon its enemies even at long range engagements, but especially when firing off a full salvo at a single target.





Naturally, Fusō also possesses a healthy secondary battery, consisting of 16 6’’ (152mm) cannons, with eight guns being mounted in casemates above the armored belt on either side of the ship’s hull. Additionally, Fusō’s dual-purpose armament consists of four dual 5’’ (127 mm), which can engage both aerial as well as surface targets. Lastly, Fusō’s dedicated anti-air battery consists of an impressive 89 25mm cannons! These are split down into 16 dual, 8 triple as well as 33 single turrets. AA battery is complemented with 10 heavy machine guns - it will take a truly audacious and skilled pilot to break through these AA defences!

Being a battleship, Fusō doesn’t just come fitted with impressive firepower, but also strong armor protection to boot. Namely, Fusō’s main belt reaches 305 mm in thickness at its strongest points - a standard figure found on most other contemporary battleships of the time period. Equally well-protected are Fusō’s main turrets and conning tower with up to 279 and 305 mm of steel armor, respectively. In addition to strong armor, another aspect which will boost Fusō’s combat endurance is the size of its crew. Namely, arriving to the game in its late WWII refit, Fusō is crewed by a total of 1,900 sailors, thus having one of the largest complements in the game!





As a result of all that firepower and armor protection, Fusō subsequently also displays an impressive displacement of 35,900 tons, which when coupled with its 75,000 hp propulsion system, can bring the floating fortress up to a top speed of 21 kts (39 km/h). As a result, Fusō has rather average mobility in comparison with other contemporary battleships.



Fusō is arriving to the game as part of the next major update to War Thunder and will become available to all captains for research in the ranks of the Japanese navy in the game. In the meantime, make sure to stay tuned to the news as we continue revealing what other exciting new additions the next major update, Fire and Ice, has in store for you. Until then, calm seas and happy hunting captains!

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.





Some of our players experienced an FPS drop in ground battles recently. The drop occurred even when nothing intensive was happening on screen and spoiled the gameplay sometimes. This issue originated from a bug, where after collision of a ground vehicle into a building or other objects, they collapsed, were restored, and collapsed over and over again, making the FPS in the area very low. The issue is happily fixed, it drops no more!





A bug sneaked in the Raubtier-class ships with the recent update. In Arcade battles, the Leopard, Jaguar and Luchs heeled so much that the ship's ‘leave’ warning appeared, and they could also lay one side up, which is lethal for the ship. The issue was in the desynchronization of the buoyancy data between the server and a player, it was caused by the conversion error of server resources. We have fixed the bug and corrected the gravity centre of the boats.





If you tried to copy a pre-set aircraft payload, say, 24x500lbs bombs, to the custom weapon menu, sometimes the overload warning might occur and it was unable to mount the exact payload via the custom weapon menu. The strange issue was massively reported, and we did our best to fix it as soon as possible. Snail reports: the bug is fixed! You are free to use any available payload setups in the weapon customization menu!




The fanciest bug of the week was the CV 90105 XC-8, which was heard as a burning sound atop the truck deck in the hangar when the vehicle was proposed for purchase. This is fine, no worries now. No more crackling fireplace sounds.



For this digest we have prepared a large set of useful fixes and game improvements. Be sure to read the full list below - there are many interesting things.

Once again, many thanks for all your bug reports that you submitted using our special service.

• 2S6 — The incorrect name of the radar position in X-Ray view has been fixed (report).
  
• BTR-ZD — Absence of description of cannon guide drives in X-Ray view has been fixed.
  
• CV 90105 — Absence of information in X-Ray view about the possibility of fire control by the commander has been fixed.
  
• Strv 122B PLSS — Understated resistance of combined shields on the upper frontal armour part against HE shells has been fixed.
  
• M4 Hybrid, Zrinyi I — A bug that caused smoke grenades not to reload has been fixed.

• F-14A — A bug causing AIM-54A missile release to trigger the radar warning system in AB has been fixed.
  
• Bo-105 CB-2 — A bug that caused an extra iTOW missile container to be displayed in the suspended weaponry set consisting of 4 BGM-71C iTOW and 12,7 mm FN M3P machine gun, has been fixed. (report).
  
• Sea Hawk Mk.100, Sea Hawk FGA.6 — A bug where in the suspended weaponry menu the 50 pounder G.P. Mk.IV bomb wasn’t shown has been fixed (report).
  
• F-4 Phantom II (all modifications), A-7D, A-7E, Kfir C2, Kfir C7, Nesher, Mirage Milan, Su-17M2, Su-17М4, Su-22UM3K — A bug where in some cases the message “Maximum weight exceeded” appeared when creating custom suspended weaponry, has been fixed (report).
  
• Saab B18B — A bug that caused the gunner to be displayed incorrectly in X-Ray view has been fixed (report).

• A bug with a blinking screen when switching cameras between a scout aircraft and ship has been fixed.
  
• Leopard, Jaguar, Luchs — An issue with excessive roll in the turn has been fixed.
  
• IJN Aoba — A bug where the smoke screen on a ship wasn’t activated has been fixed.

• A bug that could cause the sound of a burning vehicle to appear when switching to a proposed Premium ground vehicle on the truck trailer in the Hangar has been fixed.
  
• A bug that caused objects to become brighter when using Vulkan API while setting reflection quality to maximum has been fixed.
  
• A bug where users playing using Ukrainian language in the settings have been prompted to download voice files after login has been fixed.
  
• A bug where in the window for selecting squadron rank when controlling the cursor with the gamepad it was impossible to select a rank has been fixed.

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.

Commanders!
Please note our new rules regarding UHQ content in the Steam client. To avoid possible problems with UHQ texture packs (that frequently cause crashes), from now on, the Steam client will only load them if you have activated the corresponding DLCs with your Steam account and installed them. They’re all free: just don’t forget that you have to activate them to get the best picture quality, even if you used UHQ textures in the past without purchasing. Here they are:

• Environments
  
• Air Forces
  
• Ground Forces

• A heavy FPS drop that occurred sometimes in ground battles has been fixed.

The current provided update notes reflect the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates and fixes may be not listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving all the time and certain fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

All of your screenshots from last week were wonderful! Together, we put on quite the show of classy and elegant vehicles for all to enjoy! The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!


Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen36. You have time until 14.10.2022 to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

Important addition: Screenshot theme - Mayhem!

• Conflicts, whether they take place in the air, on land, or at sea can be very complex. When communication falters, mayhem ensues! Who has the most chaotic screenshots to share?
  
• You must add the #WTscreen36 tag (without other text).

[/b]

Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.

You need to be the author of the screenshot.

Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.

We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).

You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.

You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.

Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 7 working days.

[/list]




https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870411464
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870055839
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870137561

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2870013968
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869826792
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2869831491

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!