7 Best Free OSINT Tools to Track Military Aircraft, Ships and Logistics in 2026

Military logistics rarely leaves a single, convenient trail. An aircraft may appear on an ADS-B network, a commercial vessel carrying equipment may be visible through AIS, and the company behind that vessel may surface in a maritime registry. Port data can show whether traffic around a strategic hub is changing, while customs records may reveal commercial relationships further down the supply chain.

None of those sources is complete. Military aircraft can fly without appearing on public trackers, ships can move outside terrestrial AIS coverage, corporate ownership structures can be complicated, and customs data may arrive weeks or months after a shipment. But when several independent sources are combined, open-source data can provide a surprisingly detailed picture of movements that would otherwise be difficult to follow.

For defense analysts, journalists and researchers, the challenge is therefore not finding one perfect tracker. It is knowing which source to use at each stage of an investigation.

1. ADS-B Exchange

For military aviation, ADS-B Exchange remains one of the most useful places to start.

The platform relies on a large independent network of receivers collecting ADS-B and Mode S transmissions from aircraft. Unlike several commercial flight-tracking services, ADS-B Exchange says it does not remove individual aircraft simply because an owner or operator asks for them to be hidden from its community map. The interface also provides a military filter, making it particularly useful for separating publicly detectable military traffic from the much larger volume of civilian aviation.

Transport aircraft, tankers, surveillance platforms and government aircraft can all appear when they are transmitting suitable data and are within range of the network. Callsigns and aircraft registrations are useful, but the ICAO hex identifier is often the more valuable reference because it can be followed across different databases and tracking services.

ADS-B Exchange is most useful when treated as an observation tool rather than a source of conclusions. A C-17 or A400M appearing over a particular region tells an analyst where the aircraft was detected. It does not reveal what it was carrying or why it was flying there.

The reverse is equally important. An aircraft disappearing from the map does not mean it has landed or entered a covert phase of an operation. It may simply have stopped transmitting information visible to the network or moved into an area with poor receiver coverage.

The live map is available at globe.adsbexchange.com.

2. OpenSky Network

Where ADS-B Exchange is strongest for live monitoring, OpenSky Network is more useful when the investigation requires data rather than just a map.

The Swiss non-profit project operates a distributed network of sensors and maintains a large archive of air-traffic information. Researchers can work with aircraft identifiers, coordinates, altitude, velocity, heading, callsigns, squawk codes and other parameters through its datasets and APIs.

That makes OpenSky particularly valuable for looking for patterns over time. A single military transport flight may be routine. The same aircraft, or the same type of aircraft, repeatedly flying between the same locations over several weeks can be much more informative.

Historical analysis can also help distinguish exceptional activity from normal traffic. If an analyst sees an unusual aircraft movement on a live tracker, OpenSky can provide context about whether similar movements have occurred before.

There are limits to the free access. OpenSky's services are designed heavily around academic and non-commercial research, while broader historical or commercial use is subject to additional conditions. Still, for researchers who want to move beyond screenshots of aircraft maps and work with actual aviation data, it remains one of the strongest publicly accessible resources available.

3. MarineTraffic

The maritime equivalent begins with MarineTraffic, one of the world's best-known AIS tracking services.

Its usefulness for defense analysis goes far beyond locating naval vessels. Modern military logistics relies heavily on commercial shipping. Roll-on/roll-off vessels, container ships, tankers and general cargo vessels may all become part of a defense supply chain, particularly when equipment is moving between manufacturers, ports and military customers.

MarineTraffic's free access primarily relies on terrestrial AIS stations. That means coverage is strongest around ports, coastlines and heavily travelled shipping routes. Once a vessel moves far offshore, satellite AIS becomes far more important, and that level of coverage is generally part of paid services.

This distinction matters because apparent gaps can easily be misinterpreted. A ship that stops updating on the free map may not have switched off AIS at all. It may simply have sailed beyond the reach of the terrestrial receivers feeding the service.

For investigative work, the most useful detail is often not the vessel's current position but its IMO number. Ship names, flags and commercial arrangements can change. The IMO number provides a much more reliable identifier and allows the same vessel to be followed into ownership and company databases.

MarineTraffic is therefore best understood as the beginning of a maritime investigation, not the end of one.

4. Equasis

Once a vessel has been identified, Equasis can answer a more interesting question: who is connected to it?

Equasis is a free maritime database that brings together information on ships and shipping companies from a range of industry and regulatory sources. Registration is required, but there is no subscription fee for normal access.

Searching by IMO number can reveal companies associated with a vessel and help an analyst move from a position on an AIS map into the corporate structure surrounding the ship. Depending on the vessel, those records may include different entities involved in ownership, technical management or operational responsibility.

That distinction is important. The company registered as the legal owner of a vessel may not be the company that chartered it, manages its cargo or ultimately controls the voyage. Shipping structures are often deliberately complex even when nothing unusual is taking place.

For that reason, Equasis is most powerful when used to generate new investigative leads rather than to establish ultimate control on its own.

A common maritime OSINT workflow is straightforward: identify a vessel through AIS, record its IMO number, search Equasis, and then investigate the companies that appear in the results.

That simple transition from ship tracking to corporate research is often where a basic maritime observation begins to become useful intelligence.

5. Global Fishing Watch

Global Fishing Watch sounds much narrower than it actually is.

The organization was created to increase transparency around fishing activity, but its open platform has developed into a much broader tool for examining human activity at sea. Vessel tracks, port visits, encounters between ships, loitering and AIS gaps can all become relevant depending on the dataset being used.

For defense and security researchers, its main strength is historical behavior. Conventional AIS platforms are excellent at answering where a ship is now. Global Fishing Watch can be more useful when the question is where a vessel has been repeatedly travelling, which ports it visits, or whether it has regularly interacted with other vessels.

That is particularly valuable when a vessel of interest has already been identified elsewhere. The platform can help place a current movement inside a longer behavioral pattern rather than treating each voyage as an isolated event.

The Global Fishing Watch map is free to access, with registration unlocking additional features.

As with any AIS-derived analysis, unusual behavior needs to be interpreted cautiously. A gap in vessel transmissions is not automatically evidence of concealment. Receiver coverage, technical problems and normal operating circumstances can produce similar patterns.

The data identifies behavior worth examining. It does not explain the behavior by itself.

6. IMF PortWatch

Individual ships only tell part of the logistics story. IMF PortWatch takes a much wider view.

Developed by the International Monetary Fund in cooperation with researchers at the University of Oxford, PortWatch uses vessel movements and other data to monitor maritime trade flows, port activity and disruptions across major shipping corridors.

This makes it particularly useful for defense analysis because strategic logistics often depends on infrastructure that is overwhelmingly civilian. A military supply chain can be affected by congestion at a commercial port, disruption around a chokepoint, reduced shipping capacity or problems along a major maritime corridor.

Instead of focusing on one ship, PortWatch allows analysts to examine changes in activity around entire ports or critical passages. A sudden decline in traffic through a strategic location, for example, may provide useful context for developments that individual vessel trackers cannot explain.

The platform should not be used to identify the contents of a particular ship. Its value lies at the macro level: understanding whether the wider logistics environment is changing.

That makes it a useful bridge between tactical tracking and strategic supply-chain analysis.

7. ImportYeti

The final step takes the investigation off the map entirely.

ImportYeti allows users to search large volumes of U.S. maritime customs records and identify relationships between importers and overseas suppliers. The platform currently says its database contains more than 710 million shipment records and is updated regularly.

For defense-industrial research, this can be highly useful.

A company may publicly disclose its major products while saying very little about its suppliers. Customs records can sometimes reveal manufacturers, component providers or recurring commercial relationships that do not appear in corporate presentations or press releases.

This can also help establish whether a relationship is continuous or isolated. One shipment may mean little. Repeated movements between the same supplier and customer over several years can be far more significant.

There are, however, important limitations. ImportYeti is not a database of military shipments. Its data is primarily derived from U.S. maritime import records, and certain records may be incomplete, delayed or unavailable. Companies can also have commercial relationships unrelated to their defense activities.

A shipment involving a defense manufacturer is therefore not automatically a defense shipment.

ImportYeti is best treated as a source of leads: evidence that two companies have had a publicly visible shipping relationship, which can then be investigated through corporate filings, procurement records, product information and other sources.

From aircraft to supply chains

The real strength of these tools appears when they are used together.

A transport aircraft first observed on ADS-B Exchange can be checked against historical activity in OpenSky. If the movement involves a seaport, MarineTraffic can identify commercial vessels operating around the relevant location. An IMO number can then lead into Equasis, where the companies behind the vessel can be examined.

Global Fishing Watch can provide additional context about previous voyages, port calls or encounters. PortWatch can show whether the relevant port or maritime corridor is experiencing an unusual change in traffic. If a commercial company emerges from that research, ImportYeti can potentially expose suppliers or recurring shipment relationships.

What begins as a dot on an aircraft map can therefore lead to a much broader picture of the logistics network behind it.

That does not mean every connection is meaningful.

Open-source intelligence is particularly vulnerable to false correlations because the analyst is often working with incomplete information. A military flight and a cargo vessel arriving in the same region at roughly the same time may be related. They may also have nothing to do with each other.

The standard should therefore remain simple: one observation generates a lead; multiple independent sources are needed to support an assessment.

What public tracking data cannot show

There is no free website that provides a complete view of military logistics.

Aircraft that do not transmit suitable signals may never appear on ADS-B networks. AIS coverage becomes weaker away from shore unless satellite data is available. Registered vessel ownership may reveal only one layer of a much larger corporate structure. Customs records show commercial movements, but not necessarily the ultimate purpose of the goods.

Even apparently precise data can be misleading when stripped of context.

A tracker can establish that an aircraft passed through a particular airspace. It cannot establish its mission. AIS can place a commercial vessel near a port. It cannot prove what was aboard. A customs record can establish a shipment relationship. It cannot automatically establish military end use.

The difference between useful OSINT and speculation is the discipline to distinguish what is known, what the evidence suggests and what remains unknown.

That is ultimately more important than any individual tracking platform.