Hero image: War Thunder. Image: Gaijin Entertainment
Gaijin has confirmed cluster bombs for the next major War Thunder update. If you fly ground attack in Air Battles, this is what is coming to your pylons and what they will do to targets on the ground.
Cluster bombs are coming to War Thunder Air Battles. The latest dev blog from Gaijin says they arrive in the Eagle’s Shadow major update, with several types planned for different nations. It went up on Steam at 11:02pm AEDT on Monday, which is our conversion of the post time.
The idea is simple: a cluster bomb is a container, not one big bomb. You release it like any other bomb, and at a set altitude a fuze fires and the submunitions spread out across a wide patch of ground.
That makes them a tool for groups of soft targets, and the blog says they will be “especially good against AI-controlled vehicles” in Air Battles and Nuclear Escalation, where those vehicles bunch up around key bases. It names anti-aircraft systems, infantry fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and transport vehicles as targets they will work on.
Gaijin has named five so far, with more than one nation covered. The US gets the CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition, which carries 202 submunitions. Soviet and Russian aircraft, and those from Warsaw Pact nations, get the RBK-500, a 500 kg bomb with anti-tank submunitions. The British BL755 carries 147 HEAT submunitions. France adds the BM-400 and the BLG-66 Belouga.
Do not pick your jet on the spec sheet of its bomb, though. Gaijin says the destructive effect in gameplay “will be roughly equivalent” whichever type you carry, so the choice comes down to the aircraft you already fly.
There is no date for Eagle’s Shadow yet, and the blog promises more details “soon”. Gaijin posted the update trailer on 29 October, and has since covered the Leopard 2A8 and tank mobility changes headed for the same update.
This follows the custom Battle Ratings we covered on Sunday, and War Thunder was 11th on Steam’s most-played chart when we checked early this morning. Keep an eye on the dev blog for the release date.
Source: Gaijin Entertainment – Cluster bombs in Air Battles dev blog, Gaijin Entertainment – Cluster bombs dev blog (Steam), Gaijin Entertainment – Eagle’s Shadow update trailer, Gaijin Entertainment – Leopard 2A8: A Coveted Trophy, Steam – War Thunder