War Thunder's next major update, Eagle's Shadow, is released today, Wednesday 11 November 2026. Developer Gaijin Entertainment said in an official maintenance notice posted on 10 November that the game's servers may be unavailable from 08:00 GMT while the update is deployed, and that the full major update announcement and changelog will be published once the update is released and ready to play.

Eagle's Shadow is the free-to-play military vehicle game's next major content update, and its headline addition is a new top-tier fighter: the F-15EX Eagle II. The update also adds dozens of new vehicles across aircraft, ground forces and naval forces, a new category of aircraft weapon, and new rendering and visual effects.

The F-15EX Eagle II

The F-15EX arrives at Rank IX for the United States, with Israel receiving the F-15IA Ra'am variant. According to Gaijin's official dev blog, it is the most sophisticated aircraft in the Eagle series, able to carry up to 12 active radar-homing missiles, including the AIM-120D, or up to 22 precision-guided munitions in a single sortie. The developer describes it as the most heavily armed fighter in the game.

The jet carries new engines, an increased supply of countermeasures and an advanced air-to-surface arsenal, including SLAM-ER missiles, anti-radiation and anti-ship missiles. Its electronics include an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a helmet-mounted display targeting system, a radar warning receiver and a voice warning system. The Israeli F-15IA differs slightly in its air-to-ground weaponry, including SPICE precision-guided bombs and Derby missiles, while both versions are identical in air-to-air combat.

The real F-15EX is also new to service. The two-seat fighter, developed from the F-15E and the export F-15QA, made its maiden flight on 2 February 2021 and entered operational service with the United States Air Force in 2024, with the first aircraft delivered to the 142nd Wing of the Air National Guard in Oregon in June 2024.

Cluster bombs and new vehicles

Eagle's Shadow introduces cluster bombs as an entirely new category of aircraft weapon in Air Battles, giving pilots a new way to attack concentrated ground targets by scattering submunitions over an area. Among the other aircraft, the Cold War-era Soviet Su-15TM interceptor joins the game, capable of exceeding Mach 2 and becoming the earliest Soviet aircraft able to carry medium-range air-to-air missiles.

On the ground, Germany and Sweden both receive the Leopard 2A8, the latest version of the Leopard 2 family now entering service in Europe, with a protection system that can intercept anti-tank missiles. At sea, Germany gains the H-39, a giant battleship of more than 63,000 tons and about 277 metres long that becomes the new top ship in the German fleet, while the Russian Imperial Navy battleship Imperator Nikolai I arrives with twelve 305 mm guns.

A public test version of the update, the dev server, ran from 30 October to 7 November, and the changelog counted more than 30 new vehicles across ten nations, alongside new visual effects for dirt, snow, water and muzzle flashes and a new renderer. The update also adds NVIDIA DLSS 5 support, according to preview coverage.

When can players get it?

Players should expect the servers to be down from 08:00 GMT on 11 November while the update is installed, with the full changelog published when the game is back online. War Thunder is free to play on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and the update will be available to all players once deployment is complete.

• Release: 11 November 2026, servers down from 08:00 GMT
• Headline jet: F-15EX Eagle II (USA) and F-15IA Ra'am (Israel), Rank IX
• New weapon: cluster bombs in Air Battles
• New tank: Leopard 2A8 for Germany and Sweden
• New ships: H-39 for Germany, Imperator Nikolai I for the USSR