# Best-effort military-aircraft classification for the flights overlay. # # There is no single public, authoritative "is this plane military" flag on # live ADS-B data. This combines two heuristics: # # 1. icao24_prefixes — hex-address blocks that air forces reserve within # their country's ICAO24 allocation. Only the US block below is backed # by a citable source (OpenSky Network's own published research, # "Mode S and ADS-B Usage of Military and other State Aircraft", 2017: # "identifiers used by the US Air Force tend to begin with 'AE'"). Add # more countries' ranges here if you can source them with similar # confidence — do not guess, a wrong range misclassifies real civilian # traffic. # 2. callsign_prefixes — well-known, publicly documented military radio # callsigns. "RCH" (US Air Mobility Command, "Reach") is the big one # for ADS-B-visible traffic; "NATO" covers NATO AWACS/transport flights. # # Net effect: this overlay reliably flags US military and NATO transport/ # tanker traffic (the bulk of what's actually visible on public ADS-B — most # other countries' military aircraft either don't broadcast ADS-B or use # civilian-style codes) and will under-flag everyone else. Extend the lists # below as you find sourced ranges/callsigns for other air forces. icao24_prefixes: - prefix: "ae" label: "US military (DoD)" callsign_prefixes: - prefix: "RCH" label: "US Air Mobility Command (Reach)" - prefix: "NATO" label: "NATO"