Meet Line of Contact, War Thunder’s winter 2025 update!

We’re excited to release Line of Contact, and we’re kicking things off with a Closed Beta Test for a brand-new gamemode: Infantry, which you can play soon! On top of that, we’ve got the usual awesome vehicle additions, with armored vehicles and SAM systems rolling out to several nations, including the Ajax, Terminator, M10 Booker, plus the Chū-SAM, NASAMS 3, and HQ11! We’ve also got three Typhoon variants sporting the AESA radar for multiple nations, two cool Second World War aircraft, the FR-1 Fireball and the quirky DB-LK, and a fresh new cockpit for the B-25 and its variants. Some huge ships are joining the fun too, including Stalingrad and HMS Prince of Wales, plus the winter version of Poland has received a beautiful update. To wrap things up, we’ve added some neat features to the hangar, ground battle lineups at 9.3 and above get an additional vehicle in the lineup, and the Severe Damage mechanic has now come to naval battles.

Check out the changelog to see all the improvements, vehicles and other features that we’ve included in this major update.

Infantry: Closed Beta Testing Going Live Soon!

Closed Beta Testing for War Thunder’s new Infantry game mode will start soon! Experience War Thunder battles from the brand new perspective of an infantry soldier through tactical building clearouts, tense sniper duels, and fierce shootouts on city streets. For more details and to submit your CBT application, click through the link below!

APPLY FOR THE INFANTRY CBT!

Ground Vehicles: Light Vehicles, SAM Systems and the Terminator!

Line of Contact introduces the researchable Terminator and the Terminator 2 premium pack! Both look menacing and feature two 30 mm cannons and ATGM launchers on each side of the turret.

The modern Ajax light tank featuring a 40 mm cannon and good mobility joins the end of Britain’s light tank line, while the USA’s M10 Booker light tank comes in with 105 mm firepower. Both vehicles have scouting abilities.

Japan has received a Multi-Vehicle SAM vehicle in this update, which features an AESA radar, vertical-launch containers and 12 powerful missiles!

Three more SAMs come in this update, the Norwegian/American NASAMS 3 for Sweden and the USA which feature ARH missiles, along with the HQ11 for China, featuring a phased array radar and eight missiles, both providing excellent air defense.

USA

• M10 Booker
• NASAMS 3

Germany

• Jaguar 2

USSR

• BMPT
• BMPT-72 (Pack)
• Тоr-М1

Italy

• Freccia OWS30 (Squadron Vehicle)

Japan

• Type 61 (B) (Pack)
• Type 03

• M1A2T
• HQ11

Great Britain

• Ajax

Sweden

• NASAMS 3

• Merkava Mk.1

Aircraft: New Typhoons and Modern Jets, An Unusual Bomber, An Indonesian Hawk and a New Bomber Cockpit!

Line of Contact introduces a new Typhoon jet variant to Germany, Great Britain and Italy. Each feature eight AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and the new CAPTOR-E AESA radar, helping them to track enemy air targets much more effectively.

There isn’t just the new Typhoon for jet fans! The USA receives the F/A-18E Super Hornet in Line of Contact, which comes in with more weapon hardpoints, an AESA radar and 12 ARH missiles. The JAS39E comes for Sweden, equipped with Brimstones, an AESA radar and more missile hardpoints, making it a solid improvement over the C variant, plus the Su-30SM2 featuring the IRBIS-E radar and better engines comes for the USSR!

For Second World War (or goofy aircraft) fans, check out the FR-1 and DB-LK! The FR-1 features not just one, but two engines, one propeller and one a jet engine. The DB-LK has an unusual layout with two engines and cockpits, a very interesting wing shape and defensive gunner cones that rotates on the spot.

An Indonesian Hawk comes to Japan as a premium pack, featuring good speed and agility, air-to-air missiles and plenty of weaponry options to attack ground targets, making it a suitable and versatile choice to research the Japanese air tree!

And lastly, a new cockpit for the B-25J-20, making it look more beautiful than ever.

USA

• F/A-18E
• FR-1 Fireball (Premium)

Germany

• EF-2000 (AESA)

USSR

• Su-30SM2
• DB-LK (Premium)

Great Britain

• Typhoon (AESA)

France

• Rafale M F3-R

Sweden

• JAS39E

Japan

• Hawk 209 (Indonesia) (Pack)
• Su-30MKM (Malaysia)
• F/A-18D Late (Malaysia)
• MiG-29N (Malaysia)

China

• J-10C
• Su-30MKK (Pack)

Italy

• F-2000A (AESA)
• MB-326B (Premium)

New cockpit:

• USA:

  • B-25J-20, PBJ-1H, PBJ-1J — detailed cockpit has been added

• USSR, China:

  • B-25J-30 — detailed cockpit has been added

• France:

  • SB-25J — detailed cockpit has been added

New pilot models:

• USSR:

  • Yak-141, Yak-38, Yak-38M, Su-33 — pilot model has been updated

Helicopters: New Damage Details!

There’s no new helicopter in this major update, instead we’ve given some older helicopters updated modules with more damage details!

New modules:

Old modules have been given more detail and new ones affecting the functionality of aircraft systems have been added:

• USA:

  • AH-1G, AH-1F, AH-1W, AH-1Z

• Japan:

  • AH-1S, AH-1S Kisarazu, AH-1E

• China:

  • AH-1W

• France:

  • SA 316B Alouette III, IAR 316B

• Israel:

  • Tzefa A, Tzefa B, Tzefa D/E

Naval Fleet: HMS Prince of Wales, Stalingrad and Other Big Ships!

Line of Contact introduces some big ships! Stalingrad, HMS Prince of Wales, and USS South Dakota!

USA

• USS South Dakota
• USS Forrest Sherman

Germany

• Lütjens
• Parchim

Great Britain

• HMS Fiji
• HMS Prince of Wales

Japan

• IJN Oyodo

USSR

• Stalingrad

Italy

• Armando Diaz
• Cassiopea

France

• Le Corse (Premium)
• Suffren

Locations & Missions: Updated Winter Poland!

The winter version of Poland has been visually refined and improved! We’ve updated the buildings, structures, environmental elements, and vegetation. Everything on this map is now more detailed and vibrant, with countless small details added. Like always with these map updates, the original layout and navigation of the map has stayed near enough the same, meaning you won’t have any surprises when driving around.

Updated Hangar Features!

Your hangar is sort of like your home base, we’ve all spent a ton of time hanging out here. We’ve added weapon stands for missiles, rockets and bombs that display in front of your aircraft and for ground vehicles, ammunition is shown to the side. You can hover over each to see what it does and how it works!

When you click on a vehicle in your hangar while using the Customization menu, they will now perform some cool animations! For planes, the canopy and other mechanizations such as the flaps, air brake and rudder move, the engines turn on and propellers start spinning (for helicopters too). For ground vehicles, the turret and roof-mounted machine guns rotate, while for ships the gun mounts and deck torpedo tubes rotate.

All premium and event vehicles can now be viewed inside of a detailed and fully equipped hangar! Just click on the vehicle or on the hangar itself, and you’ll be transported to it. Inside, you’ll see mechanics working on the vehicle. Oh, and don’t like the festive hangars? You can now turn them off in the settings if you prefer.

Additional vehicles in Ground Force lineups

Ever wanted more vehicles in your lineup? At Battle Rating 9.3 and above in both Arcade and Realistic, an additional vehicle is now available in your ground lineups! There’s one for Arcade Battles and two (a tank and SPAA) for Realistic Battles. Check out all the details in the major changelog!

Severe Damage For Naval

The Severe Damage mechanic has now been added to naval battles to improve how damage works in the mode. Severe Damage is defined as the depletion of 50% of a ship’s crew survivability and gives you extra reward, which is equal to half the reward for destroying that ship. Check out all the details in the major changelog!

There’s plenty more to see!

Check out the full changelog for all improvements and additions!

Download the update and join the battle!

FULL LIST OF CHANGES