Among multirole helicopters, the American UH-60 Black Hawk stands out for its long history and intense military career. Drawing on lessons learned from the Vietnam War, Sikorsky built a tough, reliable, and versatile transport, one of the finest multirole helicopters of the modern era.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Hungary’s fighter aviation relied largely on foreign aircraft. In the mid-1930s, the Hungarian Air Force purchased Fiat CR.32 and CR.42 fighters from Italy. But aviation was advancing at a breakneck pace: outdated biplanes stood no chance against the latest monoplane fighters in terms of speed and firepower. The Royal Hungarian Air Force urgently needed a modern replacement.
Some older aircraft in War Thunder get a literal second life with each update. Long-forgotten machines suddenly start playing in fresh colors and roll back out of the hangars. Today is exactly one such case. We’re dusting off the Bearcat machine gun... No, wait. The machine gun Bearcat, the F8F-1!
War Thunder has plenty of HE slingers. You’d think there’s nothing left to surprise you. But every time a new one shows up, the interest comes right back. Because HE vehicles are all about emotion... and you can never have too much of that! Today we’re taking a look at Britain’s AS90.
The American F-16 Fighting Falcon light fighter first took to the skies in January 1974 — more than half a century ago. It was originally conceived as a highly maneuverable aircraft for close-range air combat. Over time, however, the Falcon outgrew that role and evolved into a versatile combat platform capable of handling a wide range of missions, from intercepting enemy aircraft to delivering precision strikes against ground targets.
The MiG-29 is a legendary 4th-generation fighter, but its mixed reputation is hard to ignore. People jokingly call it a “fuel fighter,” or “a jet built to achieve air superiority over its own airfield,” and such jokes have a bit too much truth in them. The limited fuel supply is noticeable even in War Thunder’s fast-paced battles, and of course this wasn’t a secret in real life either. Designers and the military always wanted more fuel than the MiG could realistically carry.
Messerschmitt’s Bf 110 was one of the Luftwaffe’s principal heavy fighters on the eve of the Second World War. When it first appeared, the twin-engine aircraft was seen as a powerful, modern weapon, but within just a few years, progress began to leave it behind. The high command hurried to find a worthy successor in the same class, and in the autumn of 1938, the Air Ministry launched a program to develop a new aircraft. By that time, Messerschmitt had already been working on a replacement for more than a year. The designers began with the proven Bf 110 layout, but the scale of the changes was so great that the result was essentially a new machine. Thus the Me 210 was born.
Rank IX aviation has recently arrived in War Thunder, and it’s the perfect time to take its top machines for a flight. China’s tech tree gets a brand-new flagship right on cue: the carrier-based heavy fighter J-15T. It’s clearly a serious piece of hardware — powerful, intimidating, and... somehow suspiciously familiar in silhouette.
In the second half of the 20th century, the United States built its doctrine around global-response forces: carrier aviation, the Marine Corps, and airborne troops. After the Cold War, however, that doctrine had to be reconsidered. Operations in Somalia and elsewhere made one thing clear: mobile detachments alone were not enough. The Army needed the ability to rapidly deploy a full-fledged ground formation, even in low-intensity conflicts.