Aircraft, tanks, and now the AH-64 Apache helicopter – gamers continue to go to great and vaguely treasonous lengths to be right on the internet.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
War Thunder forum user Poman_Barinov is the culprit this time, apparently posting the technical manual of the AH-64D Apache Longbow on the forums to prove his point.
The Longbow is a “remanufactured” update of the venerable attack helicopter and one that is still in service with the United States Army today, as well as a number of other countries including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
In this case, the document is technically unclassified, leading to some forum users calling for it to be allowed. But apparently, the document is also marked “Distribution Restriction Code D DOD AND DOD CONTRACTORS ONLY”, which makes it an export-restricted document, and therefore clearly against War Thunder forum rules.
Not to mention the whole mild treason thing.
This is actually the third piece of restricted material posted on the gaming forum this month. Documents detailing the specification of the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7 and F-117 Nighthawk were both posted in September, though in both cases, the documents were widely available despite still being technically restricted by law.
And there have been many cases previously.
War Thunder is a popular game (among some of our staff, too) that pits aircraft, tanks, and naval vessels against one another in multiplayer matches, and many players come to get quite attached to their favoured chassis.