Dear Gaijin Development Team,
First of all, thank you for continuing to expand War Thunder into the modern air combat era. Aircraft such as the F-15, Su-27, J-11, Rafale, Eurofighter and many others have transformed Air RB into a battlefield where radar, electronic warfare, active radar missiles and beyond-visual-range combat play a central role. Modern aircraft are no longer defined only by speed or maneuverability—they are defined by information.
Because of this, I believe the situational awareness system of top-tier Air RB should evolve alongside the aircraft themselves.
The current spotting system was an excellent solution for World War II and early Cold War combat, where pilots relied primarily on visual detection and simple radio communication. However, modern air combat follows an entirely different philosophy.
Today, pilots fight as part of an information network. Radar, tactical datalinks, AWACS, ground-controlled interception and sensor fusion work together to create a common tactical picture. A modern fighter is rarely expected to find every target with its own eyes. Instead, it receives information from multiple sources and continuously builds situational awareness together with the rest of the formation.
War Thunder, however, currently presents almost the opposite situation.
Radar contacts cannot be effectively shared between teammates. A player may maintain a stable TWS track on an enemy aircraft, yet the rest of the team receives no useful information. Ironically, visual spotting behaves like a perfect tactical datalink. As soon as one player visually detects an enemy aircraft, the entire team instantly gains precise and continuously updated positional awareness.
This creates a system that is neither representative of World War II nor of modern air combat.
The current visual spotting system effectively gives every aircraft a perfect, unlimited, real-time visual datalink that no modern air force actually possesses.
More importantly, this system does not simply reduce realism—it fundamentally changes how top-tier Air RB is played.
Modern air combat is built around controlling information. Tactics such as EMCON (radar silence), terrain masking, line-abreast formations, distributed search, cooperative radar coverage, bracket attacks and shooter-support tactics all exist because pilots can selectively manage what the enemy knows about them while maximizing what their own formation knows about the battlefield.
Unfortunately, many of these tactics have little value under the current spotting system.
For example, terrain masking is one of the most important tactical concepts in modern air combat. Aircraft fly behind mountains or terrain features to remain outside enemy radar coverage before unexpectedly appearing to launch an attack. In War Thunder, however, if even one enemy pilot briefly gains visual contact, every enemy aircraft immediately receives precise awareness of the target’s position. The tactical advantage gained through careful terrain masking is therefore greatly reduced.
The same applies to EMCON, or radar silence.
In reality, an aircraft may intentionally keep its radar switched off while receiving tactical information from AWACS or wingmen through datalink. This minimizes the chance of being detected by enemy RWR systems while still maintaining excellent situational awareness.
In War Thunder, remaining radar silent provides far less benefit. Once visual contact has been established by any enemy aircraft, the player’s position is effectively revealed to the entire enemy team regardless of whether the aircraft has emitted any radar energy at all.
Modern tactical formations also suffer from the current spotting system.
One of the most common formations in real air combat is the line-abreast formation. Aircraft deliberately spread apart to maximize radar coverage, enlarge the search area and create favorable attack geometry while remaining connected through datalink.
In War Thunder, however, spreading the formation often provides very little benefit. Teammates cannot effectively share radar tracks, yet everyone automatically shares visual spotting information. Instead of encouraging distributed search and coordinated engagements, the current mechanics unintentionally encourage players to remain grouped together because flying in formation provides little additional tactical capability beyond simple mutual support.
The result is that many modern tactical concepts become either inefficient or completely unnecessary, not because the aircraft themselves lack these capabilities, but because the information system supporting them does not exist.
This has another significant consequence.
Top-tier Air RB has gradually become increasingly formulaic.
Most matches follow almost exactly the same sequence. Both teams climb, exchange long-range active radar missiles, defend with countermeasures, turn cold, recommit and repeat until one side begins to lose aircraft. While beyond-visual-range combat is naturally an important part of modern air warfare, the current spotting mechanics unintentionally reduce the number of viable tactical options available to players.
Perhaps the most obvious example is close-range dogfighting.
Modern fighters such as the F-16, Rafale, Eurofighter and others possess outstanding maneuverability and were designed to retain strong within-visual-range combat capability alongside their BVR performance. Yet in War Thunder, entering a dogfight is often equivalent to accepting destruction.
The problem is not necessarily the opponent directly in front of you.
The problem is that the shared visual spotting system immediately advertises the location of the engagement to every nearby enemy aircraft. Instead of rewarding successful maneuvering, dogfights frequently become opportunities for third-party missile attacks.
As a result, even aircraft that should possess significant close-range advantages often avoid committing to dogfights altogether, because winning against one opponent does not prevent another enemy from arriving with perfect situational awareness and launching an attack.
This also creates an unrealistic relationship between visual spotting and Helmet-Mounted Displays (HMDs).
Modern HMD systems are designed to allow a pilot to rapidly cue onboard sensors and weapons toward a target that the pilot has personally detected or that has been provided through legitimate sensor fusion and tactical datalinks. They are not intended to provide instant precision targeting simply because another aircraft somewhere within the formation briefly saw the target.
Under the current spotting mechanics, however, a pilot can often use shared visual information to immediately locate and engage an enemy aircraft with HMD-equipped missiles. This greatly reduces the importance of individual target acquisition and does not accurately reflect modern rules of engagement, where positive target identification and continuous sensor confirmation are essential to prevent fratricide and unintended engagements.
For these reasons, I would like to suggest that the situational awareness system for modern Air RB be redesigned rather than simply extending the existing spotting mechanics into fourth-generation air combat.
My first suggestion is to remove global visual spotting for modern top-tier aircraft.
If a pilot visually detects an enemy aircraft, only that pilot should receive the visual HUD marker. Visual acquisition should remain a personal capability rather than becoming perfect information shared instantly across the entire team.
Teammates should instead receive tactical information through a simplified datalink system rather than through shared visual spotting.
Rather than displaying permanent three-dimensional markers attached directly to enemy aircraft, the tactical interface could display shared radar tracks, BRAA calls, Bullseye references, estimated altitude and general target direction. Track quality could depend on radar performance, update intervals, electronic warfare, terrain masking and communication limitations, allowing uncertainty to remain an important part of modern combat.
Every aircraft would still need to establish its own situational awareness through onboard radar, RWR, visual search and tactical decision-making. Teamwork would remain valuable, but it would no longer provide unrealistic omniscient awareness.
I also believe the current minimap should evolve into a modern tactical display.
Instead of functioning primarily as a simple navigation map, it could become a datalink display presenting shared tactical information, including friendly radar tracks, datalink contacts, Bullseye references, BRAA information and other battlefield data. This would finally give players a meaningful tactical picture while preserving the need to interpret and verify information rather than simply following floating markers.
Another area that deserves attention is the radar interface itself.
Modern fighters are equipped with sophisticated Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems. When locking a friendly aircraft, the radar should first perform an IFF interrogation and clearly display that the contact has been identified as friendly rather than presenting a lock indication that closely resembles a hostile target.
Friendly and hostile radar symbols should also be easier to distinguish visually. Improving the clarity of the radar display would reduce confusion, improve usability and better represent the capabilities of modern avionics.
I also believe that different technological eras should not necessarily use identical spotting mechanics.
The current visual spotting system remains highly appropriate for World War II and many early Cold War aircraft, where visual search and radio communication were the primary methods of locating enemy aircraft. However, fourth-generation fighters operate in a completely different information environment. Rather than relying primarily on visual spotting, they rely on coordinated sensor networks.
For this reason, lower battle ratings could continue using the existing spotting mechanics, while modern top-tier aircraft would benefit from a situational awareness system specifically designed for contemporary air combat.
War Thunder has successfully introduced modern aircraft. The next logical step is introducing modern information systems, because modern air combat is defined not only by missiles and radars, but by how information is collected, shared and used.
I believe these changes would improve both realism and gameplay.
They would encourage players to use modern tactics rather than repetitive routines. They would make radar operation, formation discipline and teamwork significantly more meaningful. They would restore the value of tactics such as terrain masking, radar silence, distributed search and coordinated attacks while allowing close-range maneuvering to become a viable tactical choice rather than an invitation for every nearby enemy aircraft to intervene.
Most importantly, they would allow modern Air RB to feel like modern air combat instead of extending a World War II spotting philosophy into an era where information has become the most important weapon on the battlefield.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this suggestion and for your continued dedication to improving War Thunder. I sincerely hope the situational awareness system will continue to evolve alongside the remarkable aircraft that have already been introduced into the game.