One of the games has already been used several times in other cases, but now another title has appeared in the Israel-Iran conflict.

On June 13, Israel launched a surprise airstrike against Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure. The initial strikes killed several Iranian nuclear scientists and high-ranking military officials. Civilian casualties have not been confirmed (estimates, depending on the source, range from 300 to 600), and hundreds more were wounded. Iran has promised a devastating response and fired rockets into Israeli territory in retaliation.

The real fear is that this could escalate into a regional war across the Middle East, but the propaganda battle is already in full swing. Iran is trying to convince the world that it is not as weakened as Israel claims and that it can fight back. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a major branch of Iran’s military responsible for defending its nuclear program, published a clip from Arma 3 claiming to show several Israeli planes being shot down. The clip first appeared on the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency, then spread rapidly through messaging apps like Telegram and on social media. One popular caption was “We shot down an Israeli plane,” with the footage supposedly showing a plane shot down by air defense systems. Posts often claimed the Israeli pilot had been captured.

Arma 3 is a military simulation game known for its photorealistic visual style, especially when it comes to vehicles. However, the plane depicted is actually Russian, not Israeli. The footage spread so widely that the Israel Defense Forces released a statement clarifying it was fake. But Arma 3 isn’t the only game used this way. Another video claims to show the moment an advanced Israeli F-35 fighter jet was intercepted and destroyed by Iran’s military defenses. Yet another clip comes from War Thunder by Gaijin Entertainment, another military simulator with highly realistic military equipment modeling.

Because of Arma 3’s realistic look, footage from the game has previously been used as propaganda in real-world conflicts, notably the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war and the war between Israel and Hamas. Here is a reminder from Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive to help spot fake footage:

Very low resolution: Even old smartphones can record in HD. Fake videos are typically much lower quality, deliberately pixelated and blurry. For dramatic effect, such videos are often not captured directly from the game but are filmed off a screen running in low quality with excessive camera shake. They are often shot at night or in the dark to hide the lack of detail. Most are without sound, since game audio is usually easy to distinguish from real life. No moving people: While games can simulate the movement of military vehicles convincingly, animating natural human motion is still difficult for even the most advanced games.

HUD elements (like weapon selection, ammo counters, vehicle status, in-game messages) often appear at the edges or corners. Unnatural particle effects: Even the most modern games struggle to render explosions, smoke, fire, and dust realistically, or to simulate environmental influences on them—watch for oddly separated cloudlets. Unrealistic vehicles, uniforms, equipment: People familiar with military hardware can spot assets that wouldn’t be present in the real conflict. For example, a widely circulated fake video showed a US C-RAM air defense system shooting down a US A-10 ground attack plane. Units may also display inauthentic insignia or camouflage.

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/V6H1dwAq8r

— BLOG ALDO ALMEIDA (@BLOGALDOALMEIDA) June 15, 2025

Source: PCGamer, Jerusalem Post