Chinese military secrets leaked on War Thunder video game forums

A fan of the online game Battle Thunder, the free-to-play car fight simulator, has leaked labeled Chinese language army paperwork on the sport’s on-line discussion board. In response to defense analysts, whereas the small print of the anti-tank weapon in query had been beforehand identified, that is the primary time that authenticating documentation has been seen exterior of China. How do we all know the paperwork are genuine? Nicely, they’re pictured subsequent to the weapon itself.

The weapon in query is the DTC10-125, an anti-tank spherical fielded by the modern-day Chinese language army. Also called a kinetic vitality penetrator, its job is to punch via metallic and breach the inner compartments of a tank and knock it out of motion. As such, its capabilities are a intently guarded secret. Or not less than they had been till somebody on the Battle Thunder boards acquired into an argument and wanted to show some extent.

The data was rapidly faraway from the boards, however it’s nonetheless obtainable on-line. Polygon has seen the unique picture and may affirm it’s fairly a complete picture, and consists of an annotated diagram of the munition itself in addition to its casing, referred to as a sabot.

UK Protection Journal, a volunteer group that covers points associated to militaries all over the world, reviews that whereas the specs of the DTC10-125 had been beforehand revealed on-line in a number of areas, this leak seems to verify them with official authorities documentation. Additionally they declare that the picture features a close-up picture of the weapon, lending extra credence to its authenticity.

This isn’t the primary time that labeled data on modern-day weapons methods was leaked on the Battle Thunder boards. In July 2021, particulars of the UK’s Challenger 2 foremost battle tank had been leaked, after which in December particulars of the French Leclerc foremost battle tank additionally ended up on-line.

Battle Thunder will not be the one simulation recreation to endure from most of these incidents. In 2019 an worker of flight simulation developer Eagle Dynamics was indicted on prices of conspiracy and smuggling for allegedly trying to have somebody inside the USA buy manuals for the F-16 on eBay after which ship them abroad for evaluation.