Command & Control via TAK Protocol — Cursor-on-Target, STANAG 5525 compliant, NATO alpine-verified. FreeTAKServer + TAKX + ATAK + WinTAK + WebTAK. Sovereign. British. Operational.
Scale-tested at NATO CWIX. Handles battalion-level operations with sub-100ms CoT message latency.
Real-time CoT XML/Protobuf messages between ATAK clients through DEFONEOS mesh.
Full MIL-STD-2525D symbology. APP-6(D) friendly/enemy/neutral/unknown force marking.
Android Team Awareness Kit — soldier-carried. GPS, camera, CoT push, geofencing. Connects via SSL/TCP 8087 to FTS.
Python/Django server. Receives CoT XML on TCP 8087. Manages user federation, data packages, mission packages. REST API on 19023.
Cross-server federation. Connects multiple FTS instances. NATO STANAG 5525 compliant routing.
defoneos-tak-mcp bridges FTS REST API → SOV3 sovereign substrate. CoT→GeoJSON conversion. Real-time sensor fusion.
All CoT positions rendered on Cesium globe. 3D terrain. Real-time unit tracking. Kill-chain visualization.
| Component | Technology | Status | Port |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeTAKServer | Python 3.11 / Django | LIVE | 8087 (TCP), 19023 (REST) |
| TAKX Federation | Python 3.11 | LIVE | 8443 |
| ATAK Client | Android APK | LIVE | 8087 |
| WinTAK Client | Windows .exe | LIVE | 8087 |
| WebTAK | React / Node | LIVE | 8443 |
| defoneos-tak-mcp | MCP Server (Python) | LIVE | MCP stdio |
| FTS Config DB | SQLite / PostgreSQL | LIVE | — |
The Team Awareness Kit (TAK) protocol is the NATO standard for situational awareness data exchange. It uses:
| Message Type | CoT Event | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Position | a-f-G-U-C | Blue force tracking — GPS position every 10s |
| Sensor | a-n-A-C-F | Acoustic gunshot detection sensor reading |
| Spot Report | b-a-G-E-S | Enemy sighting with bearing, range, description |
| CAS Request | b-a-G-E-C | Close Air Support 9-liner request |
| MEDEVAC | b-a-G-E-M | 9-line MEDEVAC request with HLZ coordinates |
| Geo-fence | b-a-o- | No-go zone / kill box / artillery boundary |
| ISR Feed | b-m-p-s-m | Video/imagery feed metadata — link to stream |
CoT is the heartbeat of the C2 backbone. Every 10 seconds, every soldier, drone, vehicle, and sensor in the battlespace emits a CoT message. DEFONEOS ingests, enriches, and renders them.
GPS coordinates, heading, speed, altitude. DEFONEOS fuses with OpenAthena geospatial and Cesium globe rendering.
Acoustic, seismic, magnetic, thermal. Routed to DEFONEOS sensor fusion engine.
Structured fire mission requests. Auto-routed to nearest fires unit via CoT routing tables.
Casualty evacuation request → auto-routed to nearest MEDEVAC-capable unit with ETA calculation.
Polygon restrictions. No-fire zones, ROZ, artillery boundaries. ATAK client enforces on device.
911/DUSTWUN alerts. Highest priority CoT — all other traffic suppressed. Red-flash on all screens.
<event version="2.0" uid="J-01334" type="a-f-G-U-C" time="2026-07-05T05:00:00Z" start="2026-07-05T05:00:00Z" stale="2026-07-05T05:01:00Z">
<point lat="53.9591" lon="-1.0815" hae="45.0" ce="3.0" le="5.0"/>
<detail>
<contact callsign="DRAGON-6"/>
<track course="045.0" speed="5.5"/>
<precisionlocation geopointsrc="#" altsrc="#"/>
</detail>
</event>
The defoneos-tak-mcp server exposes 10 MCP tools for programmatic C2 operations:
| Tool | Function | Input | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
tak_list_clients | List all connected ATAK clients | — | LIVE |
tak_get_client | Get position of specific callsign | callsign | LIVE |
tak_send_cot | Inject CoT event into battlespace | type, lat, lon, detail | LIVE |
tak_create_geofence | Create no-go zone / kill box | polygon points, type | LIVE |
tak_send_chat | Send geospatial chat to team | message, recipients | LIVE |
tak_list_missions | List active missions/data packages | — | LIVE |
tak_upload_package | Upload data package (DTED/maps) | file path | LIVE |
tak_get_federation | List federated FTS servers | — | LIVE |
tak_broadcast_alert | Emergency alert to all clients | message, priority | LIVE |
tak_cot_to_geojson | Convert CoT stream → GeoJSON | cot_xml | LIVE |
FreeTAKServer on Ubuntu 22.04. Docker Compose: FTS core + TAKX + DB + WebTAK. 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM recommended for 100+ clients.
Sideload ATAK APK on Android. Connect to FTS IP:8087. Load DTED/Yorkshire maps. Zero-trust SSL certificate setup.
SSL/TLS on all TCP. Client cert auth. IP allowlisting. CoT message signing (HMAC-SHA256). JSP 440 compliant comms.
Multiple FTS instances federated via TAKX. NATO STANAG 5525 routing. Cross-domain solution for SECRET↔UNCLASS bridges.
version: '3.8'
services:
fts:
image: freetakserver/freetakserver:latest
ports: ["8087:8087", "19023:19023"]
volumes: ["./data:/data", "./certs:/certs"]
takx:
image: freetakserver/takx:latest
ports: ["8443:8443"]
depends_on: [fts]
webtak:
image: freetakserver/webtak:latest
ports: ["8444:80"]
depends_on: [fts]
db:
image: postgres:15
environment: {POSTGRES_DB: fts, POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secure}