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Classified information regarding the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet has been leaked to a public internet forum.
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Export-restricted documents regarding the fighter jet and its use of AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) were shared to forum on 16 January before being quickly removed by forum moderators.
The server relates to the vehicular combat video game War Thunder, published by Hungarian video game developer Gaijin Entertainment.
Gaijin Entertainment head of public relations Konstantin Govorun said the company employs specialists to constantly monitor all legal sources of information and delete any classified data.
“This time, these were the documents about AMRAAM missiles for F-16 and as far as we know, they were export restricted,” he said.
“We never look at the information itself, we never check its authenticity and we do not have any means to do that.
“We deleted the posts. We made sure that those links are not available to the visitors of our forum or our employees.
“Our specialists check if the information on a specific vehicle is classified/restricted or not. As we constantly monitor all legal sources of information, we usually already know what is considered secret and what is not. So when we see something that is forbidden to be disclosed, we immediately delete it.”
Govorun said the company has not received any government requests regarding the classified information.
“We always delete all classified or restricted data as soon as possible, that’s our rule and we clearly tell our users that they should never post this in the first place,” he said.
Restricted military vehicle information has been previously posted on three separate occasions: data leaks related to the Eurocopter Tiger multi-role attack helicopter, the Leclerc third-generation French main battle tank, and the Chinese 125mm armour-piercing, fin-stabilised discarding sabot projectile. All data leaks were removed by forum moderators.
