War Thunder Update 2.57.1.38 Overhauls Nuclear Escalation AA Logic

Update 2.57.1.38, published 22 July 2026, touches aircraft loadouts, a naval hangar display bug, and — most substantially — the behavior of AI anti-air systems in Nuclear Escalation mode.

What changed

Aircraft

• The F/A-18E and F/A-18F (Britain) can now carry up to 10 AGM-154A1 JSOW bombs simultaneously, up from the previous limit.
• The F/A-18C Late, F/A-18C MLU 2 (Sweden), and AF/A-18A Late (Britain) receive a cap of 8 AGM-154A1 JSOW bombs.
• Several F-16A ADF variants (USA, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France, Sweden) and the F-16A MLU (China) had a bug fixed that misidentified carried bombs as bay-stored, and a separate bug that disabled the ballistic computer.
• The F-16D Barak II (Israel) and F-2A (Japan) receive only the bomb-bay miscount fix.

Naval

• A missing "Crew" category in the X-ray hangar filters has been restored.

Nuclear Escalation — anti-air overhaul

• SAMs in convoys now slow down while firing and guiding missiles.
• Short-range SAMs activate search radars before launching, triggered by proximity or incoming munitions.
• AA units can now turn off radar defensively when an ARM is launched from sufficient range.
• Gunned SPAAs now prioritize targets by threat level rather than simple proximity.
• A bug causing AA to ignore guided bombs heavier than 1,500 kg has been fixed.
• HQ11 and SPYDER AIO units now engage small-caliber munitions such as the GBU-39, GBU-53, and others; long-range AA still ignores them.
• Radar detectability and munition size now influence the range at which SAMs engage — the AGM-154 JSOW is currently the only munition flagged as "stealth."

For Nuclear Escalation players in particular, the AI opposition is meaningfully smarter and harder to suppress with ARM strikes or low-signature glide weapons.