Hello everyone,
In the latest Dev Server changelog, we finally saw long-awaited updates to the external ballistics and shell parameters for several 20mm cannons:
T160, M39, M61, M195, M197 20 mm cannons: external ballistics have been revised, shell parameters have been refined. (Report 27, Report 11).
Community Bug Reporting System
Community Bug Reporting System
While fixing the drag and trajectory parameters is a welcome improvement, it highlights an ongoing issue that continues to be neglected: the ammunition belts on the F-86F-2 Sabre are completely ahistorical, and its defining “smoke tracers” are still nowhere to be seen.
For those wondering what makes smoke tracers special, they operate quite differently from the bright pyrotechnic tracers we usually see in-game. Rather than glowing intensely like orange or red lasers, these rounds generate a thin, distinct trail of daylight smoke behind them. From the cockpit perspective, this smoke trail provides a clean visual indicator for leading shots without blinding the pilot or cluttering the sight picture. From the enemy perspective, the absence of a bright burning pyrotechnic element gives them lower visual detection at combat ranges. It was a very cool, distinct characteristic that accurately mirrored the experimental nature of the aircraft.
Veteran players will remember that a few years ago, the F-86F-2 actually featured its correct historical ammunition setup in War Thunder. Somewhere down the line, however, it was quietly replaced with standard API-T rounds.
This current loadout creates a clear historical anachronism. The operational combat trials for Project Gun-Val using the F-86F-2 concluded around May 1953. Official testing records, specifically COMBAT SUITABILITY TEST OF F-86F-2 AIRCRAFT WITH T-160 GUNS (1953) and Project No. APG/ADA/43-F-1, confirm that standard 20mm API-T rounds did not even enter production until September 1954. By the time API-T entered service and the T-160 was standardized into the M39, operational F-86F-2 airframes were already demilitarized and assigned to display teams like the “Minute Men.” A combat-ready F-86F-2 firing production M39 API-T never existed.
A detailed report on this belt issue has been sitting on the CBR:
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/WAK96Zu6Rot6
Since the developers are actively tuning T-160 ballistics right now, and given that these belts and visual effects were already in the game years ago, reverting this ahistorical change should be a natural step.
Can we finally get the F-86F-2 ammunition corrected back to its proper historical setup along with its unique smoke tracers? What do you all think about bringing these distinctive daylight smoke indicators back into the game?
Thank you for your thoughts and support!
