In the upcoming Tusk Force update, War Thunder (Gaijin) developers announced the addition of the BM “Oplot-T” tank. We won’t be discussing whether the Ukrainian BM “Oplot” (specifically “Oplot”, not “Oplot-T”) should also be added to the USSR tech tree. Today’s topic is something else — the falsification of the characteristics of the Ukrainian explosive reactive armor (ERA) systems “Nozh” and “Duplet”.
Although experts have already pointed out this issue, the developers only slightly adjusted the protection of the BM “Oplot-T”, and even after those changes, it is still represented completely incorrectly in the game.
What We See in War Thunder
According to War Thunder data:
- ERA “Relikt” — 250 mm vs kinetic, 600 mm vs HEAT
- ERA “Kontakt-5” — 120 mm vs kinetic, 450 mm vs HEAT
- ERA “Nozh” / “Duplet” (2דNozh”) — 140 mm vs kinetic, 310 mm vs HEAT
(“Duplet” in the game simply doubles “Nozh”: 280 mm and 620 mm)
On paper, this makes it seem like “Nozh” is barely better than “Kontakt-5”, and “Duplet” only just matches “Relikt”. But real-life data shows something very different.
What Real Tests Show
Official Ukrainian sources give the following figures for resistance to HEAT (as a percentage reduction of the shaped charge’s penetration):
- Relikt — up to 80%
- Kontakt-5 — 50–80%
- Nozh — 80%
- Duplet — 90% and more
If we convert these percentages into millimeters by proportion relative to “Relikt” (600 mm at 80%):
- Relikt: 600 mm — 80%
- Kontakt-5: 488 mm — 65%
- Nozh: 600 mm — 80%
- Duplet: 675 mm — 90%
Now compare with War Thunder:
- Relikt: 600 mm — 600 mm
- Kontakt-5: 488 mm — 450 mm
- Nozh: 600 mm — 310 mm
- Duplet: 675 mm — 620 mm
Kontakt-5 in the game is shown almost correctly (a 38 mm difference). If we assume 60% instead of 65%, we get exactly 450 mm (600 × 60 / 80), which confirms this method works and matches Ukrainian data. Duplet also roughly matches (675 vs 620 mm, a 57 mm difference).
But Nozh is underrated by almost a factor of two — this is the first clear case of falsification by War Thunder.
What About Kinetic Ammunition
For resistance against kinetic projectiles (relative to “Relikt” — 250 mm at 50%):
- Relikt: 250 mm — 50%
- Kontakt-5: 100 mm — 20%
- Nozh: 400 mm — 80%
- Duplet: 450 mm — 90%
War Thunder gives:
- Relikt: 250 mm — 250 mm
- Kontakt-5: 100 mm — 120 mm
- Nozh: 400 mm — 140 mm
- Duplet: 450 mm — 280 mm
Again, Kontakt-5 is shown fairly accurately (error of ~20 mm), but Nozh and Duplet are undervalued several times over.
Why This Matters
According to Ukrainian live-fire tests, Duplet withstood hits from the BM-42 “Mango” APFSDS (penetration ~450 mm at 2 km) fired from only 100 m, where real penetration exceeds 550 mm. After impact, the residual penetration was:
- On mockups with Nozh: 76 mm
- On mockups with Duplet: 58 mm
This means Duplet reduced penetration far more effectively than Nozh, and certainly far better than Kontakt-5.
It’s also important to note: the BM-42 is a two-part core projectile, which interacts with ERA differently from Western monoblock APFSDS. The second core, when breaking up, further damages the rear plate (leaving a dent up to 65–70 mm deep). Similar ERA modules were also tested against more modern rounds (OFL 120 F / DM-43), which outperform the Russian 3BM-60.
In other words, Nozh — and especially Duplet — demonstrated protection at least comparable to Relikt, not half as effective as shown in the game.
Why It’s Important
In fact, according to official test data, Nozh should be at least as good as Relikt — and in some cases even better, while Duplet should be even stronger.
Yet in War Thunder, these Ukrainian ERA systems are shown as outdated and nearly useless, which completely contradicts reality. This creates a false impression that Ukrainian designs are worse than Soviet-era 1980s technology — while in fact the opposite is true.
And this does not look like an accident: if the calculations for Kontakt-5 and Relikt match almost perfectly, but Nozh is undervalued by half, this is not a “mistake” — it is deliberate misrepresentation.
Conclusion
If War Thunder truly claims to be a realistic military simulator, as the developers say, then such falsifications must be corrected immediately.
This post is intended to draw the attention of players, bloggers, military experts, and — most importantly — the developers themselves, so that they stop ignoring real data and finally fix the characteristics of the “Nozh” and “Duplet” ERA.
Right now, War Thunder is not promoting realism — it is promoting a politicized image by distorting the real characteristics of modern equipment.