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Lockheed Martin is delivering four F-35s to Denmark today. With a stop at the Azores and ETA 14:00 CET.

Would I be able to find them on a public site like Flight Radar? I see a tail number of L-010 on one news article, but that did not result in anything useful...

Peter Mortensen
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JoSSte
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2 Answers2

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It's not always possible to search for military planes by tail number on Flightradar24, and you just have to look for them. And as mentioned in another answer, you might have a better chance of them appearing in ADS-B Exchange, because Flightradar24 seems to do more filtering on military aircraft.

Also ADS-B Exchange has an option to display military only (by pressing "U") which makes it easier to locate them, especially in crowded airspaces.


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Peter Mortensen
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Steve Pemberton
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It is unlikely that the F-35s transmit ADS-B data, so Flight Radar 24 can only track them if the aircraft are in range of a number of ground stations so that multilateration is possible. This means that over the ocean, tracking will not be possible.

As far as I know, Flight Radar 24 suppresses military flight data on request, so it could well be that the flights don't show up, even if they technically can be tracked.

Other websites, such as ADSBExchange, may do less filtering.

DeltaLima
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  • I was seeing a lot of military jets around the UK, and a US stratotanker in the North Sea, which led me to conclude that it may have been a possibility – JoSSte Sep 14 '23 at 12:24
  • Can WAM work without ADS-B broadcast? – mins Sep 14 '23 at 12:49
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    @mins Yes. WAM can work on any signal that can be accurately timed. For aircraft surveillance, any messages on the 1090 MHz frequency can be used, but especially Mode S message are very easy to work with because the contain identity information (24 bit address). Mode A/C messages are substantially more difficult to multilaterate, because multiple aircraft may sent out the exact same message which make correlating the messages from the same aircraft at various receivers difficult. – DeltaLima Sep 14 '23 at 15:37
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    I didn't realize that WAM is so extensively used now. I learned quite a bit from your answer on the multilateration question. – Steve Pemberton Sep 20 '23 at 01:21