No, that headline is not an Onion-style bit of satire because we genuinely live in a world so unapologetically stupid that satire is dying screaming. Apparently, an active member of the UK military and a fan of the online military vehicular battler War Thunder had some opinions about how the game’s version of the Challenger 2 tank fell short of its real-life counterpart, and consequently he shared images from an official Army Equipment Support Publication (AESP) for the tank to make his argument. However, this particular manual has not been officially declassified, meaning the user effectively broke military law.
Developer Gaijin Entertainment received written confirmation from the UK Ministry of Defense, which confirmed the AESP’s sensitive nature and pointed out that the user could receive up to 14 years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act. The studio was further warned that continued dissemination of the AESP could spell trouble for their staff, which has led to a pretty massive scrubbing of the thread in question.
As to whether the details will be used in-game, the answer from Gaijin is unsurprisingly obvious: “There is no valid source material that can be used. Therefore no change will take place. We have made it very clear our stance on source material.”
