On June 13, 2025, Israel launched surprise airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. The initial strikes killed several Iranian nuclear scientists and high-ranking military officials, while the number of civilian casualties remain unconfirmed (estimates vary between 300-600 depending on the source), with many more hundreds injured.
Iran vowed a “crushing response,” retaliating by firing missiles into Israeli territory, and six days later the conflict remains live and with little signs of de-escalation. In fact the United States may wade-in on Israel’s side, with the White House promising a decision from the Trump administration within days.
The real fear is that this could turn into a widespread war across the Middle East, but the propaganda war is already in full swing, with Iran keen to persuade people it’s not as debilitated as Israel claims, and capable of taking on such a high-tech military. Whatever the truth of the matter, this drive to demonstrate its capability led to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a major branch of the military with particular responsibility for protecting the country’s nuclear programme, posting a clip of Arma 3 that, it claimed, showed the downing of multiple Israeli jets.
The clip first appeared on the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, before rapidly spreading on messaging apps like Telegram and finding its way onto social media. A popular caption was “we shot down an Israeli jet,” with the footage apparently showing a jet being downed by anti-air defenses, and the posts also often claiming the Israeli pilot had been captured.
Arma 3 is a military simulation videogame that has a visual style which, with vehicles especially, can be mistaken for photorealistic. The clip being shared by the Iranian side can be seen below, and includes multiple repeats of the same shots, alongside the unfortunate detail that the plane involved is a Russian rather than an Israeli jet.
BREAKING: Terror in the skies over Israel as Iranians fire at Israelie defense jets.#IsraeliranWar #Israel #Iran #war #طهران_تحت_القصف pic.twitter.com/k6TBxGUGsTJune 13, 2025
The footage spread to such an extent that the Israel Defence Force issued a media denial: “No Israeli aircraft have been downed,” a spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post. “The footage is fake.” They also added that all pilots taking part in action that day “landed safely at base.”
Arma 3 isn’t the only game being used in this way. Another video making the rounds claimed to show “the moment when the advanced Israeli F-35 fighter jet was intercepted and destroyed by the defense systems of the Islamic Republic of Iran army.” Here’s the clip:
O momento em que o avançado caça israelense F-35 foi interceptado e destruído pelos sistemas de defesa do exército da República Islâmica do Irã; veja VÍDEO pic.twitter.com/V6H1dwAq8rJune 15, 2025
It’s from Gaijin Entertainment’s War Thunder, another military simulator with extremely good models of military hardware. Here is the original clip on YouTube, which was made by a fan of the game, and the description reads in part: “Russia’s 9K33 Osa surface-to-air missile system locks onto and destroys an American F/A-18C fighter jet.”
None of this, sadly, is new. Arma 3’s realistic visual style means that footage of the game has been used as propaganda in real-world conflicts before, notably in the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war and the war between Israel and Hamas. Developer Bohemia Interactive said: “It’s disheartening for us to see the game we all love being used in this way.”
Very low resolution: Even dated smartphones have the ability to provide videos in HD quality. Fake videos are usually of much lower quality, and are intentionally pixelated and blurry to hide the fact that they’re taken from a video game.
Very low resolution: To add dramatic effect, these videos are often not captured in-game. Authors film a computer screen with the game running in low quality and with an exaggerated camera shake.
Often takes place in the dark / at night: The footage is often dark in order to hide the video game scene’s insufficient level of detail.
Mostly without sound: In-game sound effects are often distinguishable from reality.
Doesn’t feature people in motion: While the game can simulate the movement of military vehicles relatively realistically, capturing natural looking humans in motion is still very difficult, even for the most modern of games.
Heads Up Display (HUD) elements visible: Sometimes the game’s user interfaces, such as weapon selection, ammunition counters, vehicle status, in-game messages, etc. are visible. These commonly appear at the edges or in the corners of the footage.
Unnatural particle effects: Even the most modern games have a problem with naturally depicting explosions, smoke, fire, and dust, as well as how they’re affected by environmental conditions. Look for oddly separated cloudlets in particular.
Unrealistic vehicles, uniforms, equipment: People with advanced military equipment knowledge can recognize the use of unrealistic military assets for a given conflict. For instance, in one widely spread fake video, the US air defense system C-RAM shoots down a US A-10 ground attack plane. Units can also display non-authentic insignias, camouflage, etc.
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