MilCom - Military Aircraft Monitor

MilCom is a lightweight, web-based dashboard designed to monitor military aircraft traffic in real-time. It fetches ADS-B data from a local receiver and applies specialized filters to highlight military assets.

Filtering & Identification

MilCom uses a multi-layered filter with OR logic – any single match is enough to display an aircraft.

1. Aircraft Database Lookup (Primary Type Source)

On startup, MilCom automatically downloads the tar1090-db aircraft database (aircraft.csv.gz, ~8 MB) directly from GitHub. This database is maintained by the readsb/Mictronics project and contains ICAO hex codes, registrations, and aircraft types.

The database is refreshed automatically every 12 hours at runtime. No manual download required. If an aircraft's type in this file matches known military patterns (like C17, A400, F16), it is flagged as military.

2. Strict Exact ICAO HEX Range Filter (Primary Filter)

MilCom uses precise numerical boundaries to identify military aircraft based on their 24-bit ICAO Hex Code. These boundaries are continuously matched against the exact intervals used by the tar1090-db military definitions (ranges.json).

This guarantees strict capturing of all relevant military airframes (e.g., US Mil, NATO, European partners) while completely eliminating false positives from similarly-prefixed civilian airlines (e.g., Ryanair, Turkish Airlines), ensuring a clean tactical picture.

3. Emergency Exception

Any aircraft broadcasting Squawk 7700 (General Emergency) is always displayed regardless of type.

Type Identification

Aircraft type is resolved in this order:

1. CSV database type code (e.g. C17, EUFI, A400)
2. Live t field from the readsb JSON (when DB-enriched)
3. Fallback: MILITARY

Admin Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /db-status	Shows DB load time, military ICAO count, last error
POST /db-reload	Triggers immediate DB re-download
GET /db-debug	Returns first 10 raw CSV rows (for format verification)

Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi (or similar SBC) with ADS-B receiver (e.g. FlightAware Pro Stick, RTL-SDR)
• Antenna tuned for 1090 MHz
• Software: readsb / tar1090 (/airplanes/data/aircraft.json endpoint)

Features

• Real-time Map with history trails (last 20 GPS positions)
• Distance-sorted contact list – nearest aircraft at top
• REG + TYPE columns from live data and aircraft DB
• Tactical HUD: pulsing ⊕ crosshair icon for military contacts, national flag emojis, ▲/▼ altitude trend arrows
• Click-to-pan: click a row to fly the map to that aircraft and highlight its trail
• Quick Copy: One-click 📋 button to copy neatly formatted aircraft data to the clipboard
• Sonar ping audio alert on new contact detection
• Basic Auth protected access

Installation via Docker Compose

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/krisauseu/milcom.git
   cd milcom

2. Configure docker-compose.yml:

   environment:
     - PI_IP=192.168.1.100   # IP of your readsb/tar1090 receiver
     - AUTH_USER=admin
     - AUTH_PASS=yourpassword

3. Start:

   docker-compose up -d

   The aircraft database downloads automatically on first start (~5 seconds).

4. Access: http://<your-server-ip>:5050

License

For educational and hobbyist use. Data accuracy depends on local receiver coverage and the aircraft database.