Hey everyone! Welcome to the first Community Update of 2026, where we’re going to be talking about what’s coming as well as some other bits and bobs. So sit back, grab your favourite snack and read on!

Free Decal code!

We love giving out free decals! We’ve made this specifically for this news post, you can place it on your aircraft (or tanks!) to alert other players of your skills!

Simply enter code STUDENTPILOT here!

Once you’ve logged in, the decal can be found under:

• “Student Pilot” decal: Decals > Special > Other

The decal code will remain active from the publish date of this news until March 2nd (10:00 GMT).

New Community Update Pack!

We’ve created a new Community Update pack featuring an avatar, decal, title and some GE. Check it out!

The Major Update

Let’s start off by going through some of the things you can expect coming in the upcoming major update.

11th Crew Slot Changes

War Thunder has 10 crew slots, with an 11th being available to obtain for inviting 10 friends who each unlock at least one rank III vehicle. This was quite difficult to do however, so we’re going to be lifting this restriction. The 11th crew slot will be purchasable for Golden Eagles instead and will not be obtainable via the referral system anymore. If you already got the 11th slot, congratulations, you already won the game having so many great friends!

New Crew Skill Window

The crew skill window has been the same for years, and during that time it hasn’t changed much, making some important information hard to understand and localize. It’s showing its age now, so it’s time to improve it! We’re going to be updating this window with a more visual approach, showing the crew members and their location within the vehicle. Crew skills don’t only affect crew members, but also some other vehicle elements. These will all be highlighted (for example, the driver’s skills conditionally improve the engine and transmission, and all of them will be highlighted). This makes each part easier to understand, with more visual appeal too!

Naval Additions

Torpedo Lines On The Mini-Map

Torpedoes are a useful way to hit enemy ships that are far away. However after launching them, players often completely forget about them and have no idea of their whereabouts and if they are actually close to hitting an enemy ship. In the next major, your mini-map will show a dotted line where your torpedo has travelled, allowing you to know its whereabouts. Only your own, launched torpedoes will be shown, allied and enemy torpedoes will not be.

Hit Icons

We recently added hit icons to naval to indicate what parts of the ship were hit, and whether the impact penetrated or caused damage. We received some feedback that crew icons should also be added, so you know when you hit the crew. We’ll be adding a new icon that will pop up when you incapacitate crew, the icon will give you the exact number of crew you’ve taken out, so you’ll have an even better idea of how effective your hits are!

New Display of crew

The current way of displaying the number of crew in ships is complicated and not especially clear. We’ve redesigned this, with the new interface showing the crew situation of your ship more efficiently (the total number, minimum number). The crew percentage has been removed and the actual number is shown. This means there will be no situations when the number of crew members displays less than 100% at the start of the battle.

Continuing on

Cockpits

We’re continuing to work on new, highly detailed cockpits for existing vehicles that have placeholders. Today we’d like to show you the Ka-29 (that we mentioned a while ago) and AH-56 Cheyenne, who are receiving these new cockpits! The B-24 will also receive a highly detailed cockpit too.

Vehicles

As always, we’re preparing bunch of vehicles that will be coming in the major update. The aircraft portion will be a little lighter than normal, however there will be something for everyone to enjoy. From more long awaited Hungarian aircraft to modern jets, you’ll be able to enjoy them.

For ground vehicles, you can expect a unique self-propelled howitzer, some light IFVs and some other interesting vehicles.

Coming on to naval, we have various interesting vessels planned, with the majority of the additions being destroyers this time around.

Updates to existing jet aircraft

Many of you have asked or made reports regarding the J-10C engine and its current configuration in game. We wanted to clarify that it is within our plans to change the engine to the later domestic WS-10 model, however this also requires the visual model to be updated. So you can expect to see it in the future, stay tuned.

You can also expect to see the PL-12A missile added for the J-10C. This missile will have a longer range over the standard PL-12 and feature GNSS. Providing a boost to the available options for the Vigorous Dragon.

Also coming for American aviation will be the AIM-120D, which will provide the USA with a needed boost over the current AIM-120C-5. This missile will feature on a new aircraft variant coming next update. But you will have to stay tuned to find out what!

White Rock Fortress returns with visual improvements!

The map, the myth, the legend. White Rock Fortress was taken out of the map pool 4 years ago and many players have been asking since if we’re bringing it back. It’s time to say that it’s returning to War Thunder in the next major! The map has been visually overhauled to fit 2026 standards and some areas have been reworked to improve gameplay, but it has still retained its features that we know and love! More information will be available in the dedicated dev blog and you’ll be able to test it in an upcoming dev server. Here’s a screenshot!

Next Event

The current aircraft event for the Dutch F-16A is starting this week! We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves, but would like to talk about what’s next. We’ll be having a naval event for a US battleship afterwards, set to start in March. Running in parallel with the naval event will be our annual football event, with both running until just before April.

Don’t forget about the first Community Update pack, which is still available for purchase! It is also available for purchase on PlayStation and Xbox, so make sure to pick it up if you haven’t already!

That’s all!

Thanks for giving this Community Update a read, we hope it gives you some things to look forward to in the next update, see you soon!

The War Thunder Team