Today, we’d like to give you a heads up regarding the removal of the R2Y2 V1, V2 and V3 for research so that you can get them before they’re gone.
In War Thunder, we want to include vehicles that were complete and built; either in full, in the prototype phase or in the experimental phase. Much like the removed German ground vehicles in 2019, the three R2Y2 aircraft are unhistorical “paper” vehicles that were never built in any capacity, added in 2014 to fill a gap due to the severe lack of possible aircraft available for Japan at the time.
The Yokosuka R2Y was an unarmed Japanese reconnaissance aircraft prototype that flew in the very late months of the Second World War in May 1945. This version (R2Y1 Keiun) was a piston engined version of the aircraft that featured twin coupled engines. Naturally the war stopped before its development could be taken any further and of the 3 prototypes, just one was completed. However, plans were made for a jet engined version of this aircraft, featuring twin Ne-330 engines in an attacker configuration. It is this version (R2Y2) that we decided to introduce in 2014 to the game, as it most closely matched the existing or planned jet bombers / attackers for other nations at the time. For example, the Canberra, B-57, Ar 234 and IL-28.
As the R2Y1 was destroyed and its development was not taken further, the R2Y2 was very much a mystery. There were only estimations of its performance, based on a combination of known R2Y1 details and the performance of the Ne-330 engines. Its overall design was very much speculative in terms of the “V2” and “V3” configurations and it’s questionable if they were even part of the original design plans to begin with. Back in 2014, we worked with what resources there were on the aircraft and brought it to some form of reality, being virtual reality, in War Thunder.
Our stance on the R2Y2 series is that they would be removed when functional replacements became available. Fast-forward to 2025, the Japanese aircraft tree now features many new aircraft, including Thai aircraft that fill enough spots and cover various Battle Ratings so that this can happen. We know that many players will want to obtain these vehicles before they are removed from being able to be researched, so there are just under 3 months to research them before they’re gone.
On April 30th 2025, the following three will be removed from research from the Japanese aircraft tree:
Key information:
- These vehicles will no longer be available for research after the above removal date and will become collectable vehicles to everyone that currently owns them. They will not be hidden from anyone who already owns them.
- If you’ve put at least 1 RP into one of these vehicles (through RP earned or converting RP), you’ll be able to fully finish the research even after the removal date. Remember, there are three in the game — if you want to keep all three, you’ll need to put research into each individually. Since they are in a group, this would require researching V1 and V2 fully to be able to put research into V3.
- We currently have no plans to ever return the R2Y2’s to the game to be researched or obtained after the removal.
