Military Drone Tracking on ADS-B Exchange

[tinman981]

Hello All
Is there a way to track Military Drones on ADS-B Exchange with out having the General Aviation Filter on ? Now on FlightRadar24 I can track Drones with the military filter on that only shows military flights only that also include Drones.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[BinaryMode]

You would need their hex ID and then filter with the URL like this:

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=aae7b1,aaf2d6,aafdfb

(Zoom way out over the U.S.).

Tethered Aerostat Radar System - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Notice how each hex ID is separated by a comma.

 

[merlin]

Quite easy with just military air selected. I grab global hawks often and zoomed out, they show up in foreign countries often.
Left panel will show any info you need for tracking.

 

[thebaldgeek]

I've added a one click button for tracking UAV's to my trackmap page.
I've been building the ICAO list for about 4-5 years now.
There are some 000001 codes in there, so keep that in mind, but its a very solid community sourced list.

Node-RED Dashboard 2.0

Node-RED Dashboard 2.0

tbg.airframes.io

 

[BinaryMode]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. And there's only one 000001.

You may be interested in these HEX IDs for hurricane hunters: a4fac3,a52242,ae0112,ae0113,ae0114,ae0115,ae0116,ae0117,ae0258,ae0259,ae04a1,e0111

I can't look them up at the FAA.gov website. But I know they're associated with hurricanes.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Not sure I follow your 'theres only one 000001' comment... I have personally seen over a dozen different types of aircraft use that hex and I don't spot (too busy running the site).

Thanks a ton for the extra ICAO's in the Hurricane Hunter range.
I have just now added them to the site button.
Don't want to get too far off topic, but if you have any other groups of ICAO's that you would like added a button, just let me know.

 

[YoShep69]

Interesting thread, Thanks.

 

[merlin]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing. And there's only one 000001.

You may be interested in these HEX IDs for hurricane hunters: a4fac3,a52242,ae0112,ae0113,ae0114,ae0115,ae0116,ae0117,ae0258,ae0259,ae04a1,e0111

I can't look them up at the FAA.gov website. But I know they're associated with hurricanes.

Hex IDs are dynamic and assigned to aircraft when the ADS-B initializes.
Sometimes hurricane hunters have identification listed.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Hex IDs are dynamic and assigned to aircraft

Hurricane hunters ICAOs are part of the LADD program?
If so, that's very odd?
Why would a NASA aircraft have a dynamic ICAO?
Am I missing something?

 

[BinaryMode]

Yeah, HEX IDs are NOT dynamic and are (from my understanding) issued per FAA. They're only dynamic in the sense of Mode C and when ADSB Exchange shows such Mode C traffic it's via a TIS-B source which may be an API of some type. Those would be a dynamic HEX ID.

Also, I've had that list of HEX IDs for some time and every year this time I see the hurricane observing air traffic.

Edit-

Only blocked at the "subscriber level." Contribute to the ADSBexchange.com Aircraft Database - ADS-B Exchange

Edit2-

Ah, found out HEX IDs are issued per country via the ICAO. International Civil Aviation Organization. So no, certainly not dynamic. Read that link above.

 

[BinaryMode]

Not sure I follow your 'theres only one 000001' comment... I have personally seen over a dozen different types of aircraft use that hex and I don't spot (too busy running the site).

Thanks a ton for the extra ICAO's in the Hurricane Hunter range.
I have just now added them to the site button.
Don't want to get too far off topic, but if you have any other groups of ICAO's that you would like added a button, just let me know.

I was just referring to the fact I saw only one 000001 HEX ID in your filter list. LOL Sorry for the confusion.

Just looked through the whole current ADSB Exchange database (113 MB in size) and I see no 000001 HEX ID using Notepad++. Very interesting you do see a 000001 though. May be LADD or PIA. Or perhaps it's dynamic due to Mode C?

Here's something else. It appears any HEX ID that begins with ae, like ae6192 are military. And there are as of this post 9,286 of them. This of course would more than likely be U.S. only military aircraft.

I wish ADSB Exchange offered a better API. 10,000 requests per month is like 4.5 minute requests every 4.5 minutes. Not good enough. I'd gladly pay $20 to $25/month for at least 86,400 requests per month.

Here are all 126 Poseidon's as of this post.

 

[BinaryMode]

Hello All
Is there a way to track Military Drones on ADS-B Exchange with out having the General Aviation Filter on ? Now on FlightRadar24 I can track Drones with the military filter on that only shows military flights only that also include Drones.

Thanks
Jeff

Here are all 31 MQ-1 Predator drones as of this post.

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

Keep in mind you may not be able to track all due to Mode C if used. Also, "Area-51" has a drone and I doubt you'll see it on radar. At least I haven't.


Here are all "drones" that belong to the manufacturers and companies like ABC news, DJI, Phantom, etc. I broke this down into two parts since there's so many. Just open each link in a different tab. Your browser will take a few seconds to open these links.



ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live





ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live






Give your browser a good 15 seconds to load. I personally didn't see anything. The again it's early morning.

 

[thebaldgeek]

Here are all 126 Poseidon's as of this post.

Thank-you so much for these. I just now added them to the 'trackmap' page as a single button.

There were just a few duplicates in your MQ-1 list from my master list, so merged the two.
My master UAV list is now at 507. You can find them on the 'trackmap' page or my site: Decoding ADSC, ADSB, ACARS, VDL2, Iridium, HF-DL and other aircraft type messages. (Check the UAV page)
The other two lists you provided I am not sure I want to add them. As you say, as one list they are too long and the URL finally maxes out what the webserver can absorb. They also have zero flying at the moment, so I think I will just leave the main list as is (at 507 of the big guys).
The DJI stuff is not as much interest for the website users I think.

It appears any HEX ID that begins with ae, like ae6192 are military.
Only for some countries. I break out many nations military stuff on different pages and they have different ranges.
For example on my 'mil - pacific' page, the ICAO range is ```ICAO matches ("^C87...$|^7CF...$|^87C...$")```
So yeah, it just depends.

 

[BinaryMode]

Here's a more definitive list on "drones" from the database that I could find. It's for the Predator, Global Hawk and the Navy's Fire Scout. They don't seem to show up much at all since I've been watching. Keep in mind this is U.S. only. ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

Finding that database was just awesome because for years I wanted access to ADSB Exchange's database and never could find it. Then again, I didn't try too hard too look either. When I found the database I was like, "Muhahahaha!" And poured through all 113 MB all day. Was pretty cool seeing some of the stuff in there and in my neck of the woods.

Check this out. From yesterday's copy of the database (it's apparently updated everyday at 23:30 UTC), there are 9,332 U.S. military listed aircraft.

If you want anything specific I can pull it for you. The limit in the browser with the comma separated HEX IDs seems to be around 1,000. Beyond that and ADSB Exchange's website throws an error. So I keep it at 1,000 HEX IDs and multi tab in the browser the others. Want all military helicopters? (there's a ton) I can do that. Want all V22's? I can do that. How about C-130's or KC135's or EC-130J's?

Obviously, during war time or whatever they don't have to squawk and use friend or foe technology. That or Mode C which is not something that shows up on ADSB Exchange all that often unless withen a TIS-B source I guess. And I'm wondering if that source to ADSB Exchange is via some FAA API?

Pretty cool stuff and I'm happy to have found it. Keeps me occupied. LOL Well, I'm wanting to deploy Pi-Hole on my OPNsesne router with Cloudflare Access for upstream DNS and Cloudflared for DoT (DNS over TLS) for the smartphone, but I've put it off since I'm not in the mood to tackle it right now. I see you're using Cloudflare for your website. I have been using Cloudflare now for nine, count them 9 years. I block some 624 ASNs and counting. LOL I only allow Google to craw the website. And at that its bot is ASN validated and whatnot. I've seen fake bots try to read my robots.txt file. Ain't happening. HEHEHE Anyway...

Edit-

Here's another website you may be interested in. Emergency Alerts

 

[thebaldgeek]

The ADSBet-al dbs are all over the web, I've been using wiedehopf's since I trust him and I know a few of the tar1090 ADSB sites use his DB.
Interesting that his db has 17,553 military aircraft and ADSBEx has 9,332. That said, I know I add around 200+ from my custom Iridium db, but its still a pretty big difference between the two which is interesting.... My guess is that you are only looking at their open db, not the community supported db?

I'd love a list of the V-22's, C-130's and the KC135s' Even if you just drop a URL for them here, I can easily grab them or a text list (CSV would be perfect).
I don't know what EC-130's are.... Would they be popular on the ACARS website?

Love my Pi-hole. Would not be as active on the web without it.

 

[RaleighGuy]

If you want anything specific I can pull it for you.

I'd love a list of the V-22's, C-130's and the KC135s' Even if you just drop a URL for them here, I can easily grab them or a text list (CSV would be perfect).

While I usually don't get involved with requests from one to another, I just wanted to mention to you @BinaryMode that the @thebaldgeek has done more than anyone (except open tracking sites) to help those searching or watching planes around the world. Helping him with the requested lists will help thousands. Thank you both for all your hard work.

 

[thebaldgeek]

I just looked up the EC-130, that's one interesting aircraft fleet.
@BinaryMode if you can shoot me a list of them as well I will for sure add them to the trackmap page/button array.
I just added buttons for E6/E4 and VIP.

Thanks very much @RaleighGuy for the kind words.

 

[BinaryMode]

Sure, man. Give me some time and I'll get on it.

 

[BinaryMode]

Here ya go. This is from the database linked here and is current as of this post.

Zip file consists of the following:

V-22's (260 count)

C30J's (525 count)

C-130's (628 count)

KC-135's (408 count)

E-6B/E-3B AWACS (Airborne early warning and control) (62 count)

C-5/C-17 (327 count)

Edit-

You have a button for P3 and a button for Poseidon. Any difference in those?

 

[thebaldgeek]

Thanks! Adding the ICAOs and buttons to the site now.

button for P3 and a button for Poseidon. Any difference in those?

If you mean E3, then I need to update the list with your new list, so will just add non-duplicates from you to whats there and rename the button.
I did not know that E-6B/E-3B are the same aircraft as Poseidon, so just let me know how you want them spit and I will take care of it.