War Thunder’s next major update finally has a window, and the headline vehicle alone would justify it. Gaijin Entertainment has confirmed that Eagle’s Shadow will arrive in mid-November, bringing dozens of new military vehicles led by the F-15EX Eagle II — the latest evolution of the legendary F-15 — plus an entirely new weapon type for aircraft, a new top-tier tank for two nations, and a heavily armoured Imperial battleship for naval players.
Start with the star. The F-15EX entered operational service with the US Air Force in 2024, and in War Thunder it becomes the new top aircraft in both the US and Israeli aviation lineups. Gaijin says it will be the first aircraft in the game capable of carrying 12 active radar-homing air-to-air missiles, or up to 20 guided bombs in a single loadout, backed by a very large reserve of flares and chaff from an additional countermeasure pod, a modern AESA radar and an advanced electronic warfare suite. If you play top-tier air, the meta is about to move.
Sharing the sky is a fascinating Cold War contrast: the Su-15TM, a high-altitude interceptor that exceeds Mach 2 and becomes the earliest Soviet aircraft in the game to carry medium-range air-to-air missiles, introducing the R-98MR semi-active radar-guided and R-98MT infrared-guided missiles. Gaijin is also using this update to debut cluster bombs in War Thunder — weapons like the Russian RBK-500 and the American CBU-87/B that scatter submunitions across a target area, giving pilots a brand-new tool against concentrations of ground vehicles. A dev blog dedicated to cluster bombs in Air Battles landed on the official site today, November 2, alongside one for the update’s new flagship tank.
On the ground, Germany and Sweden both receive the Leopard 2A8, the pinnacle of the Leopard 2 family now entering service in Europe. It is the first mass-produced Leopard 2 variant fitted with the Trophy hard-kill active protection system, which detects and intercepts incoming anti-tank guided missiles automatically, and it stacks that on top of additional hull and side armour, an internal spall liner, third-generation thermal imagers and the DM53 APFSDS round. Sweden’s version is configured for the Norwegian Army. Expect it to sit immediately among the strongest top-tier main battle tanks in the game. Eagle’s Shadow is also testing deeper ground changes on its dev server — which opened October 30 and runs through November 7 — including new tracked-vehicle steering mechanisms and turboshaft engine refinements that Gaijin plans to roll into the update.
Naval players are not left out: the update adds Imperator Nikolai I, a Russian Imperial Navy battleship carrying twelve 305 mm guns. And the full vehicle list is still growing — Gaijin says more vehicles, weapons and features will be revealed in the coming weeks before the mid-November launch, with the dev server changelog already name-checking additional arrivals like the Fulmar Mk.II and the Stingray II.
War Thunder remains free to play across PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, with more than 2,000 playable aircraft, ground vehicles and ships fighting on shared battlefields. Eagle’s Shadow is the game’s fourth major update cycle of the year, and between a new king of the sky, a new king of the ground, and a weapon category the game has never had before, mid-November cannot come soon enough. If you want an early taste, the dev server is open until November 7 — just remember that nothing earned there carries back to your live account.
Source: Gaijin Entertainment announcement via Games Press (November 2, 2026).
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