War Thunder fans will know that the game's official forums are a bit of a chaotic minefield. It seems like every month, someone comes along with a whole bunch of classified military documents and posts them to settle some kind of ridiculous argument, so you'll be unsurprised to find out that it's happened yet again.
This time it was the technical manual for the AH-64D Longbow Apache, a fairly common US attack helicopter. It seems as though the person that posted these documents didn't actually know that they were classified, which sparked themselves. Unfortunately for the poster, this particular document is actually restricted to the US Department of Defense members and contractors, and was quickly pulled from the forums. Quite how you overlook something like that is anyone's best guess.
All you War Thunder fans out there won't be too surprised at this news. A leaked military document on the forums is pretty common nowadays, but things seem to be getting a little bit out of hand over there as this is the third time a classified document has been posted on the site in a month. Just two weeks ago, a flight manual for the F-117 Nighthawk was posted which detailed things like the aircraft's firing angles, engine specifications, sensor locations, and more.
Before that, a 730-pa⭕ge manual for the Eurofighter Typhoon DAꦯ7 leaked in late August, detailing different "systems, weaponry, flight data" and more as someone attempted to help the devs add the aircraft to the game. Obviously, it's next to impossible for the team behind the forums to preemptively stop these documents from getting uploaded without shutting them down completely, but it's always a bit surreal to see classified military secrets shared out so brazenly.
If you're wondering why documents keep getting shared, a lot of it is down to military buffs arguing with each other and posting technical manuals to make a point. Sometimes a poor innocent soul with the best intentions will accidentally share something without the knowledge that its classified, as seems to be the case in this story and the Eurofighter Typhoon DA7 leak, but they largely keep cropping up as War Thunder fans attempt to ends disputes.
This will undoubtedly happen again, especially given how much of a running joke it is in the War Thunder community. The AH-64D Longbow Apache leak is actually the thirteenth leak of its kind over the course of the game's history, and I'm sure we'll have many more to come in the near future. See you next week for the next one.