Military Traffic Movements: Exploring ADS-B & AIS

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19 Aug 2023

A quick look at relevant platforms and notable movements in both Sky and Sea.

While carrying out our usual daily stalking, we noticed some interesting platforms on the move. So we decided to grab some screen caps and share.

For those that haven’t looked at our ADS-B pieces before, it’s extremely simple. ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) and AIS (Automatic Identification System) are both open source protocols designed to assist with locating assets, in both sky and sea.

Detected by Satellite Receivers as well as terrestrial tracking stations, because this is an open source protocol we are able to receive and track assets both directly and indirectly. If we have an RTL-SDR dongle or other SDR receiver then we can use them directly.

Should we not have these assets however, we can rely on web tracking and sites such as Flightradar and vessel tracker to provide us with the positional information we need.
If you’d like to follow via the web, you can check out ads-b here

and AIS here.

Let’s get started analyzing our traffic! We’ll look at ADS-B first.

Aircraft:
Our first platform is a LONG way from home. It’s a Royal Australian Air Force E-7 Wedgetail, tag A30–001. It’s travelling in pairs with a 767 transport plane. This movement is reasonably interesting because this aircraft is on the opp side of the Globe in comparison to where it usually lives. Detected close to Fairbanks, Alaska near to the north pole, MTCH01 is a long way from home.
RAAF E-7 Wedgetail, Callsign MTCH01, Tail# A30–001

Our next platform is a USAF E-6 Mercury, Reg 163918, Callsign ALID06. Lets ask the E brain for a summary on the Mercury.

Input: Give me a summary of the E-6 Mercury

Output: The E-6 Mercury is an airborne command post and communications relay aircraft based on the Boeing 707–300
Here is a summary of the E-6 Mercury:

Role: Airborne command and control
Manufacturer: Boeing
First flight: 19 February 1987
Introduction: August 1989
Status: Ceased production, in service
Primary user: United States Navy
Number built: 16
Development: The E-6 Mercury is a derivative of the commercial Boeing 707 aircraft
Features: It is a long-range, air-refuelable aircraft equipped with four CFM-56–2A-2 high bypass ratio fan engines
Mission: The E-6 Mercury serves as a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft
Capabilities: It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne nuclear command and control
Communication system: The E-6 Mercury carries a very low-frequency communication system with dual trailing wire antennas

USAF E6 Mercury Reg:163918 Call: ALID06

Next up is a USAF SAM-588. While we aren’t sure exactly what role this platform is playing, SAM stands for Special Air Mission. This means it usually has VIP onboard. When President Biden visited Kyiv some time ago, he flew in on a Boeing 757 using the Special Air Mission callsign.

SAM588 has departed Honolulu en route for continental United States.
USAF B737–700, Reg: 02–0042 Call: SAM588

Our next platform is a sub hunter, Boeing P-8 Poseidon. Unknown Reg, Unknown Call. The P-8 Poseidon is based on the Boeing 737–800, and is kitted out with radar, sonar and surveillance systems. It also has a weapons bay that is capable of being fitted with the QuickStrike Naval Mine, JASSM-ER and the AGM-84 Harpoon.

We’ve included a picture of the bay below. This aircraft made the list due to the fact it has traversed the entire continental united states over it's journey. Poseidon's regularly appear in Europe, as well as the South China Sea.

P-8 Poseidon is basically a weaponized airliner. Source: Boeing.com

Ships:

Most of our seaborne traffic comes from Europe, which is as we’d expect given there’s an active war zone nearby.

Our first platform is a NATO warship A1412. German based, and known as the Frankfurt am Man this is an at sea replenishment Ship.

Our platform is currently en route to an unknown destination and it departed from Greece some 5 days ago.

While it’s an essential part of any Blue Water navy, auxiliary ships are traditionally lightly armed, if at all.
NATO Warship A1412 is an Auxiliary Replenishment Ship, an essential platform for any blue water navy.

Our next platform also happens to belong to the German Navy. This ship however has real teeth.

Using the callsign NATO Warship 221, our platform is a Frigate class warship. Known as the Sachsen Class, these are Frigates by designation only, and are closer to a destroyer class than a frigate. With a long range sea search radar, 32 VLS cells and a 76mm otto melara naval gun, our German frigate meets the criteria for being heavily armed.

F221 departed the United Kingdom 9 days ago and has no listed destination.
Our last warship of interest is a Spanish platform. It’s another frigate, or more precisely a Bonifaz class air warfare frigate.

Like our last frigate, this ship is heavily armed and outfitted for anti submarine warfare as well as having an AEGIS AESA radar array. However this ship has only 16 VLS cells as well as a pair of quad packed Naval Strike Missiles. This means our German frigate wins the gong for the most heavily armed ship in today’s article.

Our vessel departed Ferrol, Spain 11 days ago and appears to be en route for Rota.
So there you have it. A wide range of platforms from many different countries carrying out various different roles.

Remember these are the ones we can see. It’s reasonably to assume that both at sea and in the air, we have other platforms that are entirely undetected.

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