War Thunder 2.57.0.30 tightens F/A-18 limits and extends Nuclear Escalation

Gaijin’s War Thunder update 2.57.0.30 landed on July 1, 2026, and the patch spends most of its time on aircraft handling, event balance, and bug fixes.

The biggest changes affect the F/A-18 line, while Nuclear Escalation now runs until July 6 at 11:00 GMT with higher Silver Lions rewards. The update also limits ESM to ground targets for now and raises Spawn Point costs for several guided weapons.

Patch Notes

Aircraft

• The precision and smoothness of the vehicle’s motion in the Bomb/Missile Camera View have been improved.
• The ESM functionality has been temporarily limited to ground targets only. We plan to revise and return the ability to detect and attack air targets in the future.
• F/A-18A, F/A-18A (Britain), AF/A-18A Late (Britain), CF-188A (Britain), F/A-18C Early, F/A-18C Late, F/A-18C MLU 2 (Sweden), F-18C (Sweden), F/A-18D Late (Japan) — the structural overload limit has been decreased from 12G to 11.25G for all F/A-18A/C/D aircraft except for the versions with titanium reinforced airframes: F/A-18C (Switzerland) and F/A-18C Late (Switzerland). (Report).
• MiG-29KR (9-41R) — a bug that caused the canopy ejection animation to be missing when ejecting has been fixed. (Report).
• MiG-21 2000 (Israel) — the missing G-suit modification has been added. (Report). A bug that caused the number of countermeasures in the spawn screen to mismatch the numbers in battle and in the stat card has been fixed. 42 out of 106 countermeasures have been replaced with large-caliber ones.
• C-3604 (Germany) — a bug that caused the pitch controls to remain intact after the tail had been cut off has been fixed.
• IA.58A (Pucara) — the air spawn speed has been increased from 250 km/h to 350 km/h. (Report).
• CF-188A — the description of the 425 SQN anniversary camouflage has been corrected. (Report).

Ground Vehicles

• M1A2 SEP — a bug that caused the M829A3 and M829A2 shells to be changed to M829A2 and M829 shells respectively when equipping the TUSK modification has been fixed. (Report).

Nuclear Escalation

• The event has been extended to July 6th, 11:00 GMT.
• All rewards in Silver Lions have been increased by 40%.
• The rewards in Silver Lions for the destruction of ground vehicles have been further increased by 40%.
• BUK-M3 — the reload time has been increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
• The composition of each SAMP/T site has been changed from a set of 1x TADS and 3x TEL to 2 independent sets of 1x TADS and 2x TEL, totaling in 2x TADS and 4x TEL per site.
• The composition of a short-range AA covering SAMP/T sites has been changed from 1x Gepard and 1x ItO 90M to 2x ItO 90M.

Game Mechanics

• The Spawn Point cost for guided bombs and missiles with man-in-the-loop capabilities has been increased. For bombs with TV seekers, the cost has risen by 9%, and by 7.7% for those with thermal imaging seekers. For missiles with TV seekers, the cost has increased by 8.4%, and by 5.6% for those with thermal imaging seekers.
• The Spawn Point cost for anti-radiation missiles with wide-band seekers has been increased by 10%.
• The Spawn Point cost for anti-radiation missiles on helicopters has been decreased by 5.6%.

Patch notes reflect only key changes, meaning they may not include a complete list of all improvements made. Additionally, War Thunder is constantly being updated and some changes may not require an update. Changes reflected in patch notes are formed by taking reactions and requests of the community from the bug reporting service, forums and other official platforms into account. Bug fixes and changes are implemented in order of importance, for example a game-breaking bug will be worked on and implemented sooner.

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Source: Steam

War Thunder

Developed by Gaijin Entertainment

War Thunder is the most comprehensive free-to-play, cross-platform, MMO military game dedicated to aviation, armored vehicles, and naval craft, from the early 20th century to the most advanced modern combat units. Join now and take part in major battles on land, in the air, and at sea.

• Genre: Shooter, Simulator, Tactical
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
• Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
• Release: 2013-01-28
• Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
• Age Rating: PEGI 12 / USK 12 / CERO B / ACB PG / GRAC 12+ / ESRB T
• IGDB Rating: 74.2/100

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