How to track military aircraft

Use a flight tracker that doesn’t filter military aircraft — ADS-B Exchange, airplanes.live, adsb.fi or ADSB.lol — and turn on its military filter. You’ll see the military aircraft that are transmitting and within range of a receiver. Aircraft with ADS-B Out switched off or not fitted appear only where receivers can locate them another way, and some never appear at all.

Updated November 2026 by the team behind Squawk, an iPhone tracker for military-aviation watchers. We make Squawk, so it’s listed last; the free web trackers below are where most people should start.

1. Use a tracker that doesn’t filter military aircraft

Flightradar24 limits or blocks some aircraft at the request of owners or operators, and says military and government aircraft may be blocked entirely⁹; FlightAware blocks aircraft from public view too¹⁰. Community networks pool data from volunteer receivers and describe their maps as unfiltered:

2. Know what no tracker can see

• ADS-B Out off or not fitted. US rules let the FAA authorize aircraft on sensitive national-defense, homeland-security, intelligence or law-enforcement missions to stop transmitting ADS-B Out¹¹, and FAA accommodations cover Defense Department aircraft that aren’t equipped with ADS-B Out or don’t transmit it¹² (as of November 2026). An aircraft that transmits nothing can’t be shown by any tracker — ours included.
• Positions by MLAT. An aircraft without ADS-B position can still be placed by multilateration when four or more receivers hear its transponder¹⁵, so some appear only where receivers are dense.
• Hidden identities. LADD lets owners have their flights filtered from public display by participating sites¹³, and PIA gives eligible aircraft a temporary address that isn’t tied to the owner in the public registry¹⁴.
• Coverage gaps. Volunteer receivers are dense over North America and Europe and thin over oceans, deserts and mountains. Low-flying aircraft drop out first.
• No reasons. A position, type, callsign and altitude are all you get. No tracker can tell you why an aircraft is flying.

3. Read what you’re looking at

Every transponder has a unique 24-bit ICAO address — the “hex” — assigned from its country’s block¹⁶, which is how trackers recognise military airframes. Callsigns help too: RCH is “REACH”, the US Air Mobility Command¹⁷.

4. What the numbers look like

Squawk samples every military aircraft broadcasting worldwide once an hour. In October 2026 (23 days, 433 hourly samples):

Every one of those is a floor: aircraft that aren’t transmitting are never counted. Full method and other months: October 2026 report.

Right now (2026-11-12 01:47 UTC): 83 military aircraft airborne and broadcasting worldwide. Live list.

5. Get alerts instead of watching a map

If you run your own ADS-B receiver, plane-alert-db¹⁸ — a community list of interesting aircraft, military included, used by alert tools such as Planefence — can tell you when a listed aircraft is heard nearby.

On iPhone, Squawk — the app we make — sends a push notification when military aircraft enter an area you draw, when aircraft depart a military base you watch, or when an aircraft of a type you pick (a B-52, a U-2) takes off anywhere, with the app closed. Military aircraft are never filtered from its map. It’s a subscription ($4.99/month or $34.99/year, with a 1-week free trial on the yearly plan) and it can’t see aircraft that aren’t transmitting either.

Get alerted, not just informed

Squawk pushes an alert when military aircraft enter an area you choose or depart a base you watch — even with the app closed. No ads.

Questions

• What is the best way to track military aircraft?
  Use a tracker that does not filter military aircraft, such as ADS-B Exchange, airplanes.live, adsb.fi or ADSB.lol, and switch on its military filter. Commercial trackers like Flightradar24 and FlightAware block some aircraft, and may block military and government aircraft entirely.
• Why doesn’t Flightradar24 show military planes?
  Flightradar24 limits or blocks some aircraft at the request of owners or operators, and says military and government aircraft may be blocked entirely. Community ADS-B networks such as airplanes.live say their maps are never filtered.
• Can any app show every military aircraft?
  No. US rules let the FAA authorize aircraft on sensitive government missions to switch ADS-B Out off, and some military aircraft are not fitted with it. Trackers can only show what is transmitted, so every count is a floor.
• How do I get an alert when military aircraft fly near me?
  If you run your own ADS-B receiver, plane-alert-db lists interesting and military aircraft for alert tools such as Planefence. On iPhone, Squawk (our app) sends a push notification when military aircraft enter an area you draw or depart a base you watch, with the app closed.

Related

Sources

1. ADS-B Exchange — About
2. ADS-B Exchange — How to see live military
3. airplanes.live — FAQ
4. adsb.fi
5. adsb.fi — open data terms
6. ADSB.lol — API specification (ODbL licence)
7. OpenSky Network — About
8. OpenSky Network — Terms of use
9. Flightradar24 — Why does it say that a flight is blocked?
10. FlightAware — Blocking an aircraft
11. eCFR — 14 CFR 91.225, ADS-B Out equipment and use
12. GAO-18-177 — FAA accommodations for DoD aircraft and ADS-B
13. FAA — Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD)
14. FAA — Privacy ICAO Address (PIA)
15. FlightAware — Multilateration (MLAT)
16. SKYbrary — 24-bit aircraft address
17. FAA JO 7340.2, Contractions — Chapter 3, Section 3 (telephonies)
18. plane-alert-db (sdr-enthusiasts)

Live positions come from volunteer-run ADS-B receivers, shared as open data under the ODbL licence. An aircraft is visible here only if its transponder is broadcasting and a receiver hears it, so coverage is dense over North America and Europe and thin over oceans, deserts and mountains. Not for navigation or operational use. More about our data.