▶️Abrams Tanks in Heavy Cavalry

We’ve already covered many of the mechanics and vehicles from the Heavy Cavalry update, but we still haven’t taken the tanks that inspired the update’s name for a drive. Time to fix that! Today we’ll play the new Abrams variants from the American and British tech trees.

🛠Update 2.57.1.22

Aircraft
▪️The point of interest and aiming points set by the player now persist after respawning.
▪️Su-30MK2 AMV (USSR), Su-30MKK (China), J-11A, MiG-29N (Japan) — the designations for the RVV-AE missiles on the HUD and MFD have been added.
▪️B-25J (all variants) — a bug that caused the fuel to be distributed unevenly, causing the plane to roll to the left has been fixed. (Report).

Ground Vehicles
▪️A bug that caused vehicles to move backwards much faster than they should has been fixed. (Report, Report, Report).

Naval Battles
▪️A bug where the shell impact point indicator was tied to guns that had not yet aimed at the target, causing it to appear only after all guns had finished aiming, has been fixed.

Graphics
▪️A bug that caused trees to disappear from the scope view when zooming in has been fixed.
▪️A bug that occurred when playing aircraft that caused some shadows at medium distances to be missing on the “Very High” ▪️Shadow Quality setting has been fixed.
▪️Infantry mode graphics settings are now separate from the general settings.
▪️A bug causing visual artifacts during Naval Battles on Macs with Intel and AMD graphics cards has been fixed.

Interface
▪️A bug that caused the “Attention to the map” command to stop working when clicking on the minimap if the show cursor button was different from the default one (Alt) has been fixed. (Report).

🇫🇷 Decals and a Discount on the Vautour IIN for Bastille Day!

On July 14th 1789, the Bastille fortress-prison fell, becoming a pivotal event of the French Revolution. More than 90 years later, this date began to be celebrated as a national holiday. In the 20th century, a military parade on the Champs-Élysées was added to the festivities, featuring the Patrouille de France painting the world-famous tricolor in the sky with smoke!

🥰The S.O.4050 Vautour IIN is temporarily available at a 30% discount for 5,992 Golden Eagles!

When: From July 14th (11:00 GMT) until July 17th (11:00 GMT).
Where: France > Aviation > Premium vehicles.

*️⃣Open the “Bastille Day” trophy!

When: From July 14th (11:00 GMT) until July 17th (11:00 GMT).
Task: Earn 3,000 mission points in battles where you used French vehicles at rank III or higher to receive the “Bastille Day” trophy!

Inside this trophy, you’ll receive one of six previously available decals:
🌟 “Bastille Day” decal
🌟“Heart of France” decal
🌟“Bastille Day” decal
🌟“Cocarde de France” decal
🌟“Bastille Day” decal
🌟“Bastille Day 2025” decal

Please note: After finishing the task, you need to collect the reward manually.

🏆The WTCS Challenger League Major II Winner is “Team Warning”!

Last weekend marked the conclusion of the WTCS Challenger League Major II, the second major event of the War Thunder Championships Series Challenger League.

In the end, Team Warning secured first place and strengthened their position in the standings with 139 points. Close behind, COVERT claimed second place with 101 points, while NEXUS completed the podium in third place with 84 points.

This second Major has further shaped the race for the Challenger League title, with Team Warning delivering a dominant performance at the top of the standings. COVERT and NEXUS also confirmed themselves as strong contenders as the season progresses, while ENP and SkyHammer remain well within reach of the leading pack heading into the next stage of the competition.

Congratulations to Team Warning on their victory in Major II!

▶️MiG-21 2000: The Legend Gets a Second Wind

Almost everyone with even a passing interest in jet aviation has heard of the MiG-21. It’s one of the most mass-produced and recognizable fighters in history. The MiG 21 2000, however, is far less widely known. And that’s no surprise: it was a fairly rare Israeli deep modernization program, created for countries that wanted to keep a time-tested aircraft in service while bringing its capabilities closer to modern standards. In War Thunder, we can finally see how well that idea worked.

🛠 Update 2.57.1.29

Aircraft
▪️The ability to link weapons to aiming points via the tactical map by right clicking, along with a corresponding hint to the right of the map, has been added. After opening a context menu on the aiming point, all weaponry available for linking is displayed. The number of munitions linked to a point is increased with LMB and decreased by pressing RMB.
▪️A bug where the aiming point mechanic was only available when GNSS-guided munitions were equipped, rather than based on the aircraft’s capability to carry them, has been fixed.
▪️J-10A, J-10C — a bug where the aircraft would turn excessively, making it easier to snap the wings during maneuvers has been fixed. (Report).

Interface
▪️A bug that caused the width of the chat window in battles to decrease has been fixed.
▪️A bug that made it impossible to fully view the tank battle area and general battle area tactical maps in Ground Battles when zoomed in while using an aircraft has been fixed. (Report).

Graphics
▪️A bug where, in some cases, outdated sky data was used during sunlight calculations, causing the scene to be illuminated by a darker shade of light than intended has been fixed.
▪️A bug that caused ship shadows in Naval Battles to flicker on the “Low” Shadow Quality setting has been fixed.

😼Variety of Cats in #WarThunder

👊 Get the Scimitar Mk.2 in the Scimitar Strike Event!

The history of the CVR(T) family of combat reconnaissance vehicles dates back to the 1960s. By tradition, they were given names starting with the letter “S”: Scorpion, Striker, Spartan, Samaritan, Sultan, and Samson. The seventh vehicle in the series was the Scimitar, named after the Middle Eastern saber, being fast and deadly. Get an upgraded version of the Scimitar along with themed decals and a decoration in this new ground vehicle event!

🕜 From July 22nd (11:00 GMT) until August 5th (11:00 GMT), earn mission points in Ground Battles, unlock stages and receive rewards!

🏆How to get all rewards
Each stage can be completed for 35,000 mission points, where every new stage obtained will give you a new reward.

You’re able to earn mission points in Ground Battles at Rank III or above in Arcade, Realistic and Simulator Battles. The number of mission points to complete a stage depends on the game mode and the maximum Rank of the vehicle that you use in battle. There’s a multiplier for earning mission points, which is shown in the task description in-game.
You can also earn mission points by using event vehicles that are Rank I and II. Event vehicles that can be used have the name of the event that they were obtainable in on their stat card.

Stages change every two days at 11:00 GMT on July 24th, 26th, 28th, 30th and August 1st and 3rd.

⭐️For 1 Stage: trophy with a random reward
⭐️For 2 Stages: one of the decal rewards
⭐️For 3 Stages: trophy with a random reward
⭐️For 4 Stages: one of the decal rewards
⭐️For 5 Stages: trophy with a random reward
⭐️For 6 Stages: the “Shamshir” tank decoration
⭐️For 7 Stages: non-tradable coupon for the Scimitar Mk.2

💪The Upgrade for a coupon
When you complete 7 stages, you’ll receive a non-tradable coupon for the Scimitar Mk.2, where using it will immediately activate the vehicle onto your account. If you don’t want the vehicle and would like to sell the coupon on the Market, you’ll need the “Upgrade for coupon” item.

😄Thunder Show: DRASTIC ACTION

Welcome to Thunder Show and the most powerful moments of the past week!

▶️Taming Flying Leopards

The Heavy Cavalry update brought several Leopards into the game: two tanks and one aircraft. Yes, the Chinese JH-7 strike aircraft are Leopards too — just flying ones. Today we’ll break down how to play this family and how the new version differs from the earlier models.

▶️M60A1: Paving the Way for the Abrams

For decades, the Patton family of tanks became one of NATO’s main armored pillars. But the road to a truly modern main battle tank took time.

🚀 Battle Pass Season 24: “Do It Yourself” and Its Warbond Shop!

Crews often have to operate in the field. When there’s no fully equipped hangar with tools and specialists nearby, resourcefulness and ingenuity come into play! We’re dedicating Battle Pass Season 24 to the makeshift mechanics and resourceful engineers ready for the boldest improvisations. This season’s vehicle rewards were born from improvisation: the Romanian IAR-81 fighter fitted with a Bf 109G engine, and a Somali modification of the Italian FIAT 6616 armored car, equipped with a 57 mm rocket pod!

The German Bf 109 T-2 fighter is now available in the Warbond Shop for the first time. You can also obtain a trophy containing “Road Signs” decorations and the new “Black Widow” decal in exchange for Warbonds.

Beginning on: July 22nd (12:00 GMT)
Ending on: October 21st (12:00 GMT)

🎯New vehicles this season

🇮🇹FIAT 6616UB (Italy) — A Premium Light Tank for Italy at Rank IV
🇮🇹IAR-81C (DB 605) (Italy) — A Premium Fighter for Italy at Rank III

🎯The Warbond Shop in Season 24!

🇷🇺Project 123K (A-10bis) (USSR)
🇩🇪Bf 109 T-2 (Germany) — first time in the Warbond shop!
🇸🇪Strv m/41 S-I (Sweden)
🇺🇸USS Frank Knox (USA)
🇫🇷Yak-3 (France)
🇨🇳M4A4 (1st PTG) (China)

Get out there and get yourself some goodies!

➡️Click here for all of the Challenges
➡️Read more

▶️Yak-15: First Soviet Jet

In the first years after World War II, Soviet aviation found itself in a pretty weird situation. Industry had ramped up production of thousands of modern piston-engine fighters, and the ranks were filled with hundreds of pilots hardened in combat against the Luftwaffe. But at the same time, jets — the German Schwalbes and the British Meteors — were already flying over Europe, while the Soviet Union still had no working jet engine of its own. A promising project by engineer Arkhip Lyulka was scrapped after the German invasion because the engineer had to be evacuated to the Ural mountains. And although Soviet design bureaus conducted experiments with jet and rocket engines from 1942 through 1945, none ever reached serial production.