🧁 The Festive Cupcake for Silver Lions!

A Festive Cupcake with a Christmas tree is perfect this time of year to go with your cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee. It is also magical in War Thunder, as it can be opened for Silver Lions to get some cool items. Ho Ho Ho!

The Festive Cupcake can be purchased in the in-game Item Shop for Silver Lions from December 17th (11:00 GMT) until January 13th (11:00 GMT). It can only be purchased by players who have at least one researchable vehicle at rank II or higher on their account.

🎉 The Festive Cupcake will reward you with vehicles, camouflages, decals, decorations and player profile icons from previous winter events, plus useful consumables, including boosters, universal backups, wagers and orders. Some items are here for the first time as coupons, meaning you’ll be able to sell them on the Market!

The Festive Cupcake can be purchased for 60,000 Silver Lions.

🛠 Update 2.53.0.12

Aircraft
▪️JAS39C, JAS39EBS HU C — a bug that prevented the radar page on the MFD from showing up has been fixed.
▪️FA-18E — excessive bank angle after tight turns while using mouse aim control has been fixed.
▪️JAS39E — a restriction on the combined use of the under-fuselage SPICE 250s with the LITENING III targeting pod has been added. The Battle Rating in Ground Realistic Battles has been changed from 12.7 to 13.0.
▪️CCRP has been removed from all nuclear bomb carrying aircraft, as it wasn’t of any meaningful use on them and could instead interfere with the bomb drop if the point of interest was activated accidentally.
▪️OS2U-3 — engine name has been corrected from R-985-48 to R-985-AN-2. (Report).

Ground Vehicles
▪️A bug that caused the penetration and damage of 76–105 mm HE shells to be slightly overestimated compared to 120–155 mm HE shells has been fixed. This was due to using a linear, rather than quadratic, approximation for how shock wave parameters vary with distance.
▪️BMPT, BMPT-72 — a bug where destroying the ATGMs and/or automatic grenade launcher’s ammo pack would result in the loss of the vehicle has been fixed. A bug where, when switching between gun belts, the sight, fire control system, and rangefinder would take into account the ballistics of the first belt, not the currently selected one has been fixed.
▪️Ajax — a bug that caused the Scout UAV to lack thermal vision has been fixed. (Report).
Type 03 — a bug where the launcher vehicle was not located next to the TDS vehicle when viewing it in the hangar has been fixed.
▪️TOG II — a bug that prevented the 76 mm howitzer from working has been fixed. (Report).

Naval Vessels
▪️USS South Dakota — full name in the stat card has been corrected. (Report).

Interface
▪️A bug that caused the key icons in the Controls menu to be stretched vertically has been fixed.
▪️Khrizantema-S — a bug where the radar indicator fill was greatly stretched horizontally has been fixed. (Report).
▪️An issue where markers would be missing in replays in the sensor view when watching the player’s view while the player was controlling a ship has been fixed.

Customization
▪️F/A-18E, FR-1 Fireball, J-10C, MB-326B, Rafale M F3-R — additional camouflages have been added.

Xbox
▪️A bug that caused the game to frequently crash has been fixed.

Other
▪️A bug where battles may end early with no rewards being given has been fixed.

➡️LEARN MORE

▶️ Matilda: Iron Lady

The British Matilda rarely takes center stage in wartime chronicles. Yet crews across the Commonwealth fought in these slow, peculiar tanks from the early years of World War II to its very end. When Vickers engineers designed it, they drew heavily on lessons from the long-gone First World War. Yet remarkably, they still nailed it. The Matilda turned out to be relevant even as the nature of warfare evolved dramatically.

📱 YOUTUBE

🛍 The Winter Sale in War Thunder!

The temps are dropping, it’s frosty and cold outside, and snow is starting to fall (unless you’re in Australia!), so now’s the time for some winter discounts in War Thunder! This weather makes it the perfect time to start researching a new nation or get some high-tier vehicles that you’ve been missing.

🕖 When: From December 18th (11:00 GMT) until December 24th (11:00 GMT).

🔍50% discount on all vehicles for Silver Lions and Golden Eagles
🔍50% discount on all modifications, talismans and backups
🔍50% discount on a Premium Account in-game for 90 and 365 days and in the Gaijin.net store for 180 days.
🔍50% discount all starter packs in the Gaijin Store

Please note! Discounts do not apply to:
Vehicles released in the Line of Contact, Spearhead and Tusk Force major updates and their modifications, talismans and backups
All Squadron Vehicles and their modifications, talismans and backups

❗Please note that the premium AH-1S Kisarazu helicopter (Japan, Rank VI) will be removed from the store on December 24th (11:00 GMT).

After this sale ends, discounts on vehicle packs in the Gaijin Store will start. We’ll tell you more in a separate news post on December 24th!

▶️ INFANTRY CBT PREVIEW

Get an early look at the brand-new infantry CBT coming to War Thunder! Sign up to the beta on our website.

📱 YOUTUBE

🧑‍🚀Winter Concert: MiG-25PD

Today, we’re taking a look at the main aircraft reward in the Winter Concert event that started today: the record-breaking MiG-25PD jet fighter!

MiG-25PD: An Event Vehicle Jet Fighter for the USSR at Rank VII

At a glance:
✅The fastest aircraft in the game!
✅Air-to-air missiles for long-range and short-range dogfights
✅Most effective at very high altitudes
❌No guns
❌Mediocre maneuverability

In addition to being the fastest production fighter in history, the MiG-25 is also the holder of the absolute altitude record for a jet aircraft of 37,650 meters!

You can get the record-breaking MiG-25PD, along with other unique vehicles and a large number of other rewards in our Christmas vehicle event called Winter Concert, which started today. Go and get it!

🏆Team DODEC is the Champion of WTCS 2025!

Last Sunday officially marked the end of the WTCS 2025 season, closing the book on a year that truly redefined competitive War Thunder esports. From the very first qualifiers to the final, decisive clashes, the 2025 circuit delivered non-stop action, deep strategic play, and high-stakes combined arms warfare at every stage.

Throughout the season, teams battled across several WTCS flagship formats: Titan, Armored Apex, and Air Superiority, each demanding a unique skill set, constant adaptability, and flawless coordination across air and ground under intense pressure. Only the most consistent and versatile teams were able to remain at the top over the course of the entire year.

In the end, DODEC emerged as the best team of WTCS 2025, securing 1st place overall with 356 points on the global leaderboard. Their season was defined by exceptional consistency, strong results in every major event, and the ability to deliver when it mattered most. Rather than relying on a single standout victory, DODEC built their dominance step by step, proving themselves to be the most complete and reliable team of the season.

Congratulations to all teams who competed throughout the season! WTCS 2025 showcased the very best of War Thunder Esports and laid a powerful foundation for what’s to come in future seasons.

🛠 Update 2.53.0.19

Aircraft
▪️R-77-1 air-to-air missile — a bug that caused the missile autopilot to sometimes guide the missile to the incorrect trajectory which lead to the loss of tracking has been fixed.
▪️J-10C — additional LS-6(IR) 250 guided bombs have been added, bringing the total amount to 10 max.
▪️A bug in the operation of the phased array radars, which led to distortions of track parameters and loss of tracking of air targets in TWS mode has been fixed.
▪️JAS39E — the restriction on the combined use of the under-fuselage SPICE 250 and LITENING III pod has been removed.
▪️Su-30MKK (China) — a bug that caused the names of PL-8 and PL-12 air-to-air missiles to display as a text key on the MFD has been fixed.
▪️A21A-3, A21RB — a bug that caused the maximum mass of the suspended armament to be underestimated has been fixed.

Ground Vehicles
▪️BMPT-72 — a bug that made it impossible to change the belt of the right cannon in the modifications window has been fixed.

Naval Vessels
▪️A bug that caused the lack of sounds when playing vessel animations in hangar has been fixed.

Locations and missions
▪️Ardennes, Ardennes (winter) (all missions) — a bug that caused the vehicles to spawn inside the buildings or facing them has been fixed.
▪️Ash River, Arctic — temporarily removed from rotation until bugs are fixed.

Interface
▪️A bug where the text and price on the new crew slot were displayed with an offset has been fixed.
▪️A bug where, when selecting shells or countermeasures, only the ammunition of one weapon, launcher, or countermeasure pod was taken into account and selected has been fixed.
▪️In sensor view in replay mode, a bug that caused Multi-Vehicle SAM systems that were not currently under the player’s control to not display as the player’s vehicles has been fixed.
▪️A bug that caused the rank of the player’s vehicle preset to be incorrectly displayed in the queue window has been fixed.
▪️An issue where achievements on PlayStation would display a text key instead of the title of one of the chapters has been fixed.

Graphics
▪️A bug that caused the shadows from the weapons around aircraft in the hangar to not render in if the weapons were not on the screen has been fixed.
Customization and Achievements
▪️A bug that caused the number of dropped nuclear bombs on the “Atomic Ace” profile showcase to not increase has been fixed.

Other
▪️The Holiday hangar has arrived!
▪️The ability to select the hangar has been enabled.
▪️A bug that made it impossible to play the vehicle animations in hangar when playing from a controller has been fixed.

➡️LEARN MORE

▶️ Thunder Show: GUEST FROM THE PAST

This video is available with voiceovers and subtitles in multiple languages. You can find and enable them in the settings menu.

📱 YOUTUBE

▶️ How It Works: Turbojet Engines

Turbojet engines have long been a cornerstone of modern aviation. Today, let’s dive into how these powerplants work.

📱 YOUTUBE

🎄 Celebrate the Winter Holidays and the New Year in War Thunder!

The holiday season is upon us! It’s that time of year where the snow is falling, the Christmas tree is decorated, good food will be had, presents will be unwrapped, and fireworks will light up the night’s sky at the New Year. Exciting things also await you in War Thunder, and today we’re going over all of the activities that are going on this holiday season! Get high-rank vehicles, trophies with rewards, decorations, a collection of decals, and treat yourself to discounts during sales. There’s also a Tank Snowball event, coming this week!

When: From December 22nd (12:00 GMT) until January 5th (12:00 GMT).
🍊“Warrior Horse” decal — earn a total of 2,000 mission points while using Rank III or higher vehicles.
🍊“Garden Gnome Deer” decoration for ground vehicles — earn a total of 20,000 mission points while using Rank III or higher vehicles in Ground Battles.
🍊“Christmas Gazebo” decoration for ships — earn a total of 20,000 mission points while using Rank III or higher vehicles in Naval Battles.

🎁 More details on our website

Use code “NEWYEAR26” in our store here to get yourself the free “Elf helper” decal! The key is available until February 1st 2026. This decal can be found under “Special > Other” in the decal customization menu.

☃️ Tank Snowball: Get Ready For a Snowball Fight!

Snow is falling, all around us! It’s Christmas, cold outside and snowing, so it’s time to take a break from regular battles and have a little fun with your enemies by throwing (firing!) snowballs at them!

🕖 When: From December 23rd (12:00 GMT) until January 1st (11:00 GMT).

From the Events & Tournaments tab in-game, locate the “Tank Snowball” section and click Take part.

In Tank Snowball, you play with the unique Snowballer tank, which comes kitted out with a snowball launcher that shoots the Snowball Mk 1. Every Snowballer has a dedicated Elf crew and a target plate sticking up top. Your mission? Hit those enemy target plates with your Snowball Mk 1! The first team to get 60 target hits (destructions) or the first team to capture the enemy’s point wins the snowball fight.

Hitting an enemy’s target plate will knock it over and your Elves will launch fireworks to celebrate the nice shot! However, it won’t totally destroy the enemy’s vehicle. It will disable their launcher and they won’t be able to shoot, meaning they’ll need to repair their vehicle for 7 seconds before they can use it again.

If your target plate gets hit, we recommend you retreat, wipe the snow off, get some fresh warm clothes (repair in a hidden spot!), and then get back out there to shoot more snowballs at the enemy!

🏆Get a reward!
Are you good at firing snowballs? You’ll be rewarded with this unique Firework Mortar decoration, specially made for this event!

Task: Hit 50 enemy target plates in the Tank Snowball event to get the “Firework Mortar” decoration for ground vehicles!

➡️ You can see the progress of the task for the Firework Mortar by clicking on your nickname and going to Achievements → Tank Snowball

🎆 “Firework Mortar” decoration for ground vehicles

The Firework Mortar can be placed on any ground vehicle and will fire off fireworks when you get a destruction in any random battle!

🛠 Update 2.53.0.26

Aircraft
▪️A bug on some aircraft that caused hits to some parts of the fuselage to never lead to the wings tearing off has been fixed.

For rank VII–VIII aircraft without the detailed avionics damage model (no new electronics modules), on direct hits the following changes were made:
▪️Avionics and fire-control equipment can no longer be disabled by fragmentation or kinetic damage.
▪️Avionics and fire-control equipment can no longer be disabled by relatively small HE damage (i.e., less than from a hit by a small‑warhead AAM such as Stinger, or equivalent munitions of other types).
▪️It is no longer possible to disable all weapons at once.
▪️HE damage to the fuselage from a hit by a large‑warhead AAM (e.g., AIM‑9 or larger) or equivalent munitions of other types now always disables the use of guided weapons, as well as the radar electronics and the RWR.
▪️Blast damage from a hit by a small‑warhead AAM or equivalent munitions of other types has a chance greater than 50% to disable the use of guided weapons, and a separate chance greater than 50% to disable the radar electronics and RWR.
▪️The chance to disable other systems from blast damage caused by hits from any AAM or equivalent munitions of other types has been reduced (down to 30%).
▪️F/A-18E — a bug that caused the 500 lb LDGP Mk 82 bombs and 1000 lb LDGP Mk 83 bombs to incorrectly display on some hardpoints has been fixed.
▪️JAS39E — the height of the extended landing gear struts have been corrected to make overall height correct and to fix the bug with the part of the frontal strut piston clipping into the walls of the other half.

Ground Vehicles
▪️In the test drive mission for high-rank Chinese vehicles the M1A1 HC tank and Leopard 2A5 tank have been switched places, so that the electro-optical APS of the M1A1 HC would not interfere with the ATGM guidance when shooting at other targets.

Locations and Missions
▪️Pradesh — the altitude of clouds has been increased.
▪️Ash River — a bug with the ground textures appearance has been fixed. All temporarily disabled missions on this location have been brought back to the rotation.

Game mechanics
▪️A bug that caused the intecepted (shot down) munition to not deal damage to the player and their allies has been fixed.
▪️The mechanics of crediting the destruction by the intercepted munitions has been corrected. If the intercepting player and the player who has launched the munition are in the different teams, then only the destruction of their enemies are credited to each one. If they are in the same team, the player who has launched the munition gets credit for the enemies, and the player who has intercepted it gets credit for the destruction of their teammates.
▪️A bug that caused the destruction of the munition by the explosion of intercepted munition to be also counted as an interception has been fixed. This fix only affects the chain-destroyed munitions, so if one of the munitions destroyed by the explosion of the intercepted munition (or an explosion of any munition in the chain) will destroy an enemy, the destruction will be credited to the player that has intercepted the first munition in the chain.

Other
▪️The content needed for the infantry CBT has been added to the game. You can apply for the CBT here.

➡️LEARN MORE

🔫🔫🔫The first stage of the Infantry CBT has begun!

As you may have noticed, the game client has received a substantial update. It contains the new game mode currently being tested by the CBT participants.

It’s only the first stage of the CBT, with a limited number of players. The number of participants will increase in future stages. If you receive an invitation to participate, you’ll be notified via email and with an in-game popup.

➡️Sign up to the beta on our website.

🔤🅰️🔤🔤The Winter Sale in the Gaijin Store!

It’s Christmas and the New Year is just around the corner, so it’s time to stock your hangar with new premium vehicles! The Gaijin store is having a holiday sale, with many packs going on sale with big discounts!

🕖When: From December 24th (11:00 GMT) until January 1st (11:00 GMT)

50% discount on 3️⃣4️⃣ selected packs!

➡️TO THE STORE

🎄The Holiday Collection!

During the sale, when you purchase any of the following 12 packs, you’ll receive a pleasant bonus: a unique camouflage that looks like an Ugly Sweater!

▪️F-2A ADTW Pack -50%
▪️MiG-29 Sniper Pack -50%
▪️Saab JA 37DI Viggen F21 Pack -50%
▪️Leopard 2 (OTCo) Pack -50%
▪️Al-Khalid-I Pack -50%
▪️Challenger DS Pack -50%
▪️Merkava Mk.3 Ra’am Sagol Pack -50%
▪️F/A-18C Hornet Pack -50%
▪️M1 KVT Pack -50%
▪️T-80U-E1 Pack -50%
▪️A-10A Thunderbolt (Early) Pack -50%
▪️MiG-21 Bison Pack -50%

❗Owners of vehicles in these packs who purchased them before the start of this promotion will be able to receive the Holiday Collection camouflages by getting three wins while using each of the corresponding vehicles before January 2nd.

During this promotion, camouflages from the Holiday Collection will also be available for Golden Eagles.

‼️Please note! After the special promotion ends, the following packs will be removed from purchase on all platforms:

🔹Arkansas Pack
🔹Object 140 Pack

🎁The Holiday Box for Golden Eagles!

As per tradition, the Holiday Box awaits you in the in-game Item Shop, available for purchase with Golden Eagles. It contains a variety of useful items, including a Premium Account, Silver Lions, universal backups and boosters, premium vehicles, and all vehicles that were previously sold for Golden Eagles or War Bonds but are currently not available in-game or on the Market.

🏪The Holiday Box can be purchased for 999 Golden Eagles in the in-game Item Shop from December 24th (12:00 GMT) until January 13th (11:00 GMT).

Getting the Holiday Box is a bargain! If you have opened enough boxes, you’ll be guaranteed to receive talismans and premium vehicles. And that’s not all, as the average value of the box contents are almost one and a half times the price of the box itself!

Additionally, after opening a specific number of boxes, you’ll receive memorable additional rewards:

For 3 boxes, the “Looking into 2026” decal
For 5 boxes the “Christmas sack” decoration for ground vehicles
For 7 boxes the “Spruce garland” profile icon frame
For 10 boxes the “Christmas night” profile background

➡️LEARN MORE

🔼Revising the Rate of Fire of the T-64, T-80, Т-72, ZTZ96, ZTZ99 Series and VT4, VT4A1 Tanks

From 7.1 to 6 sec

▪️T-80B
▪️T-64A (1971)
▪️T-64B

From 6.5 to 6 sec

▪️T-80U (USSR, Sweden)
▪️T-80UD/BE
▪️BM Oplot-T
▪️Oplot-M
▪️T-80UM2
▪️Т-80UD
▪️Т-80UK
▪️Т-80U-E1
▪️Т-80BVM

From 7.1 to 7 sec

▪️Т-72A
▪️Т-72B
▪️Т-72B (1989)
▪️Т-90A
▪️Т-72B3
▪️Т-72B3A
▪️Т-90M
▪️Т-72АВ Turms-T
▪️Т-72М2 Moderna
▪️Т-72М1 (Italy, Germany, Sweden)
▪️Bhishma TWMP
▪️ZTZ96
▪️ZTZ96A
▪️MBT-2000
▪️Al-Khalid-I
▪️ZTZ99-II
▪️ZTZ99-III
▪️WZ1001(E) LCT
▪️2S25
▪️2S25М

From 7.1 to 6,66 sec

▪️VT4
▪️VT4B
▪️ZTZ99A

➡️LEARN MORE

💅40 New User-Created Camouflages in the Line of Contact Trophy!

The holidays are here, and the festivities are in full swing! A major update, Line of Contact, was recently released — the fifth this year! Our work doesn’t stop there, and we’re continuing to bring you new content for the update. We present the Line of Contact trophy featuring camouflages created by authors from the Live.WT portal. It contains many camouflages for ground vehicles and aircraft from various nations and ranks, including vehicles from the recent update. In the trophy you’ll find both camouflages with unique creator styles and classic patterns used across different theaters of war. In addition to camouflages, you can also earn a unique decal and rare vehicles, all in the form of coupons!

🎁Contents of the Line of Contact trophy:

▪️Coupons for rare vehicles
▪️22 camouflage coupons for ground vehicles
▪️14 camouflage coupons for aircraft
▪️3 camouflage coupons for naval vessels
▪️1 camouflage coupon for helicopters
▪️A coupon for the Line of Contact decal

➡️LEARN MORE