War Thunder Update 2.57.1.98 Details New Anti-Radiation Missiles and a Fresh Nuclear Escalation Era

The changelog covers new missile options for multiple aircraft, revised nuclear carrier aircraft, and a large set of convoy behavior fixes.

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Two War Thunder fighter aircraft release weapons over a smoke-covered battlefield

War Thunder Update 2.57.1.98 brings new anti-radiation missile options to several aircraft and adds another era to Nuclear Escalation. Gaijin Entertainment published the full changelog on August 19 in its Update 2.57.1.98 announcement.

The patch also changes which aircraft carry nuclear weapons in Ground Battles. Nuclear Escalation receives new air-defense placements, longer rebuild times for destroyed facilities, and a lengthy set of fixes for tank and supply convoy behavior. Ground vehicles get one targeted crew replenishment fix as well.

War Thunder Update 2.57.1.98 Patch Notes

The biggest gameplay changes affect Nuclear Escalation. Its new era uses Battle Ratings 8.7–9.7 and 10.0–11.0, while convoy logic now handles targets, buildings, garrisons, and supply depots with fewer wasted units and lost cargo.

Aircraft

F-4C, F-105D, F-111A, Ayit — the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile (variants B-3B, B-4, and B-6) have been added along with a corresponding modification.
F-4E, A-6E TRAM, A-7E, A-7E (Japan), Kurnass, Kurnass 2000 — the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile (B-9 and B-10 variants) have been added along with a corresponding modification.
Tornado GR.1, Buccaneer S.2B, Jaguar A — the AS-37 Martel anti-radiation missile has been added along with a corresponding modification.
Su-22M3, Su-22M3 (Italy) — the Kh-27PS anti-radiation missile has been added along with a corresponding modification.
F-4C — incendiary bombs are now unlocked via the BLU-1 modification research at tier I of modification research, the modifications to unlock rockets have been moved from tiers III-IV of modification research to tiers II-III.
Nuke carrying aircraft are now capable of CCRP bombing again.
Several nuclear carrier aircraft in Ground Battles have been changed:
US and Japan: from ☢Canberra B.Mk.6 to ☢B-57B Canberra, and from ☢Jaguar A to ☢F-105D.
China: from ☢Su-24M to ☢JH-7A, and from ☢F-16A MLU to ☢J-10A.
Italy: from ☢Tornado IDS ASSTA1 to ☢Tornado IDS (1995).

Ground Vehicles

A bug that caused the third and the following crew members of the same role (i.e. the third loader) to not heal automatically and to not be replenished when using crew replenishment has been fixed.

Nuclear Escalation

A new era has been added, split into two brackets with different lineups of vehicles: Battle Ratings 8.7–9.7 and 10.0–11.0.
A mirrored version of the mission has been added for the same location: the sides swap places and the bases, convoy routes, and map zones are symmetrically flipped.
In addition to anti-aircraft guns, airfields feature Osa SAM systems (with a four-missile loadout) on one side and a stationary Rapier system on the other; at Battle Ratings of 10.0-11.0, these SAM systems also occupy positions alongside S-75 and HAWK systems.
MLRS are absent in this era.
Destroyed factories and depots now take longer to rebuild: 15 minutes instead of 10. Previously, a building would respawn before the player could reload and return to finish it off, making it nearly impossible to break through the defenses in some cases.
Anti-aircraft guns protecting tactical assembly areas no longer respawn automatically on a timer; they only reappear when the building they are linked to is restored.
Armored vehicle depots no longer attempt to produce vehicles beyond the total limit, thereby avoiding the waste of fuel and ammunition.
When a convoy captures a building, the destroyed anti-aircraft guns assigned to it now respawn and are repaired.
Convoys can now capture destroyed factories and warehouses: captured ruins are immediately repaired and begin operating.
Tank convoys no longer go through buildings. Vehicles no longer vanish inside either enemy buildings or friendly ones that have already been captured; tanks are now consumed solely to reinforce garrisons at strongpoints.
An issue where convoy tanks would teleport into the enemy garrison instead of remaining outside the enemy strongpoint and engaging the garrison while defenders were still active has been fixed.
An issue where the allocation of slots at a strongpoint was incorrect, potentially resulting in two vehicles occupying the same position has been fixed.
Convoys now re-select their target while en route if the original target has been destroyed, captured, or filled: tank convoys head to the next objective, while supply convoys proceed to a depot with available capacity. Consequently, cargo from supply convoys is no longer lost at a destroyed depot or seized by the enemy when a convoy enters hostile territory.
Supply convoys no longer target depots on the other side of the map, but instead select the least filled of the three nearest ones.
Tank convoys no longer slow down to 20% of their speed when an enemy is nearby; previously, due to slowing down, they often failed to capture the target before a new enemy convoy arrived or appeared.
Convoys of self-propelled guns now correctly select a random target from among the nearest enemy buildings, take up a firing position, and engage the target.

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War Thunder is a free-to-play vehicular combat MMO featuring aircraft, ground vehicles, and naval craft spanning from the early 20th century to the modern era. Players progress through technology trees across multiple nations, unlocking increasingly advanced military vehicles. The game offers three realism tiers for each vehicle type: arcade, realistic, and simulator modes. Originally developed as a flight simulator under the name "World of Planes," the game expanded to include tanks in 2014 and naval forces later, becoming a combined-arms experience. A mobile version was released in 2023.

Genre Shooter, Simulator, Tactical
Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One
Perspective First person, Third person, Virtual Reality
Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
Release January 28, 2013
Publisher Gaijin Entertainment
Age Rating