I was just thinking recently about how gaijin has previously used defined thermal imager resolution as a method of nerfing western thermals and noticed some pretty obvious discrepencies with gaijins modelling of Russian MBT thermals.
A good example of this are the 3rd generation thermals of the Leopard 2PL (KLW-1/KLW-1E/KLW-1P), all of which are 3rd generation, but have a 620x512 resolution irl, which led to gaijin nerfing them down to 2nd generation in WT.
Or, more egregiously, the Litening II pod, which has 1st generation thermals ingame, but is a 3rd generation thermal camera, also with a 612x520 resolution. (though this might be a bug as its thermal resolution is slightly higher in test drive)
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/iQsGdeMUC87x
Despite this, the russian the Russian T-80BVM, whgich uses Sosna-U sight with either the Thales Catherine-FC or russian made PNM-T thermal imager gets gen 3 thermals, despite Catherine-FC being a 754x576 resolution thermal imager:
link
and PNM-T being a 640x512 thermal imager:
link
Other russian vehicles with Gen 3 thermal imagers are;
- 2S6M (better thermals than the Pantsir S1 lol)
Spoiler
- 2S25M and 2S38
Spoiler
While some Russian vehicles get gen 2+ thermals:
- Ka-52 and Mi-28NM
Spoiler
This is despite the fact that, atleast as far as I know, the russians have never produced thermal imagers that match the gen 2 or gen 2+ classification used in WT, and should at most be rounded up to gen 2:
As far as I can tell, the most advanced thermal imager that Russia has gotten their hands on for production was the Catherine-XP thermal imager:
Which is considered a 3rd gen thermal imager, but like the KLW-1 fro the 2PL, does not meet the WT classification for even 2nd gen:
I might be wrong in my info, and if so, please do provide info to support your claim, but I cant see any reason why ANY russian vehicle in-game should have thermal imagers above 2nd gen thermals, and I haven’t noticed any bug reports on the subject either. Even the 2S6M, which is OLDER than the Pantsir S1, haas better thermals than it, which is quite frankly laughable.
It seems to me, at least with the info I could find, that the Russians have no reason to have such good thermals in-game, and that there is once again some unequal treatment regarding in-game in their favor.