Free · Open-source · Self-hosted

Track the aircraft, vessels, and satellites of the state.

An operator console for the state-asset picture: military, government, coast guard, border, search-and-rescue, lifeboats, HEMS, air ambulance, police, aerial firefighting, and state research — matched against a public, community-maintained watchlist, with the provenance behind every claim.

25,260 state assets tracked across 13 categories — refreshed monthly from 11 public datasets, with every count updating automatically as the data changes.

MIT licensed app CC-BY-SA watchlist Zero telemetry ADS-B · AIS · TLE sources
The OpenTAC operator console: a live MapLibre world map with colour-coded state-asset markers, the roster rail, the legend, and the major-category filter chips — MIL · GOV · COAST · BORDER · SAR · LIFE · HEMS · AMBU · POL · FIRE · RES · ESVC.
A real capture — the live picture with the roster rail, an open inspector, and colour-coded markers. Each contact is genuine ADS-B / AIS; the inspector shows the selected asset's classification and provenance. No synthetic positions, ever.
The console

Four things on one screen, so you stop running six browser tabs.

The same operator stance as its sibling OpenHNW, pointed at state and volunteer-SAR assets instead of private individuals.

LIVE

The live picture

Every state aircraft and vessel in range on one map, coloured by major category, updating in real time from public ADS-B and AIS. Capture-all by default — squawk 7700, AIS distress, SAR patterns and lifeboat launches surface the moment they happen.

adsb.lol · aisstream · digitraffic · local readsb / ais-catcher
IDENTITY

The known-assets trail

Click any contact and see who operates it — service, unit, base, role — from a curated, sourced watchlist kept current by a monthly cross-reference ingest over ~26 public datasets. Newcomers that self-identify are auto-registered and classified into the taxonomy, ready for a human to promote.

stable id: ICAO hex · IMO · NORAD cat № · taxonomy: major → subcategory → platform
HISTORY

The movement history

The live picture is full-fidelity; the local archive is thinned so a busy feed stays searchable. The movement engine derives stops, legs, and dark spans from what was kept — replay interpolates only between fixes the archive actually holds. A dark span stays a dark span.

PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB · 35-day retention · journeys · dark-span detection
PROVENANCE

The provenance behind every claim

Confidence is a first-class field and every operator/unit/role carries its source. Unknowns are left blank rather than guessed — honesty by construction.

verified · reported · going-dark · clickable primary sources
Investigate

Narrow the picture to a place and a time.

Default to last-hour-active contacts; draw zones of interest; filter roster and map to who crossed a region during your chosen window; replay every in-zone contact at 1×–10× — without inventing a position the archive never held. See the investigator workflow →

What it tracks

Thirteen major categories, dozens of subcategories.

A single hierarchy for every asset — major category → subcategory → platform class — auto-classified from the live feeds and curated in the watchlist. See the full taxonomy →

MilitaryMIL

Combat, transport, tankers, ISR/AWACS/SIGINT, training, helicopters and UAVs; warships, auxiliaries, patrol craft, hovercraft.

GovernmentGOV

Head-of-state and VIP transport, diplomatic couriers, state research & calibration aircraft, state yacht.

Coast guardCOAST

Fixed-wing, helicopters and UAVs; cutters, icebreakers, patrol boats, fisheries enforcement, SAR hovercraft.

Border & customsBORDER

Border-force and customs fixed-wing, helicopters and UAVs; interceptor vessels.

Search & rescueSAR

State and contracted SAR helicopters and fixed-wing, SAR vessels — with first-class launch detection.

HEMSHEMS

Helicopter emergency medical services — air ambulance charities and national air-rescue.

Air ambulanceAMBU

Fixed-wing air ambulance and medical repatriation.

PolicePOL

Police aviation and marine units — air support, UAVs, harbour/river patrol.

Fire & rescueFIRE

Aerial firefighting — air tankers, scoopers, helitack and lead planes; fireboats.

LifeboatLIFE

All-weather and inshore volunteer lifeboats — RNLI, DGzRS, KNRM, SNSM, NSRI and peers.

State researchRES

Research, survey, polar, hydrographic and anti-pollution vessels; research aircraft.

Emergency servicesESVC

Multi-role and airborne command-and-coordination platforms (the catch-all major).

SatelliteSAT

Military and state satellites — recon, SIGINT, comms, early-warning, GNSS (predicted overlay).

Get OpenTAC

One command, and the picture is on your screen in a minute.

Apple Silicon and Linux, on Docker. Loopback-bound by default; reach it over SSH.

$ git clone https://github.com/gonzoinceng-ctrl/opentac && cd opentac && ./install.sh
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