War Thunder's Nuclear Escalation Returns With Two Eras and Reworked AA

War Thunder's Nuclear Escalation event is back for a six-day window — July 22nd through July 28th (13:00 GMT both days) — and developer Gaijin has made a notable set of changes since the June iteration.

What changed

• Two aircraft eras now run simultaneously, each with two Battle Rating brackets: 10.3–12.0 and 11.7–12.7 in the early era; 13.0–14.0 and 13.7–14.7 in the late era.
• New nuke carriers recently added to Ground Battles are now also available in late-era Escalation matches.
• Anti-aircraft behavior has been significantly reworked, particularly for short-range SAM systems — they no longer fire while moving at full speed and now activate search radars earlier.
• Silver Lion rewards for ground vehicle kills have been doubled, producing an overall increase in per-session earnings.

The mode itself places players in command of front-line aircraft armed with nuclear bombs, tasking them with destroying depots, convoys, airfields, artillery, MLRS, tactical ballistic missile systems, anti-aircraft positions, and carrier fleets — all with unlimited respawns.

The AA rework and the split-era structure are the most substantive additions here: the former should reduce frustrating instant-kill moments from moving SAM units, while the latter gives a wider range of aircraft a relevant bracket to fight in. The doubled Silver Lion payout for ground targets makes the grinding math noticeably more favorable.