From our 2021 Annual Report

Mission

HelicoptersofDC is dedicated to bringing DC residents the most accurate and up-to-date information on what's overhead and to foster collaboration and education about helicopter identification and mission profiles. 2020's GAO report found that 96.3% of helicopter noise complaints to the MWAA from 2018-2021 were unattributed to any specific operator - this is why we feel it's important to educate the community on helicopter identification in addition to reporting what is happening currently and why.

I'd like to thank our Patreon supporters, their contributions cover server costs and allow me to invest in hardware to bring radio calls to the platform.

Unique Strengths of the CopterSpotter System

Many flight tracking sites like Flight Aware, Plane Finder and Radar Box remove flights at the owner's request. Even ADSBExchange, which doesn't filter any flights, does not receive tracking information from most military helicopters due to the Code of Federal Regulations Title 14, Chapter I, Subchapter F rule 91.225 which makes an exemption to mandatory flight transponders for "sensitive government mission for national defense, homeland security, intelligence or law enforcement."

This makes an enormous amount of helicopter flights over the NCR untraceable in any systematic way. As a result, we rely on user submitted photos and identification of helicopters in addition to a separate system that allows users to categorize helicopter radio calls to/from DCA tower.

This dataset is sourced from user-submitted photos on Twitter, and powers a computer vision program to automatically infer submissions to @HelicoptersofDC so DC residents can better identify what's over their heads.

Helicopters of DC (@HelicoptersofDC)

.@fergindc spotted an H60 and has 1997 points 🔭🎷 #CopterSpotter Probable operators: Army/National Guard/FBI/Possibly Presidential twitter.com/a/status/15570… pic.twitter.com/YOmY5VTxoX

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZux60kX0AAaHXL.png" alt="">

Tweet link

Operators around the NCR can be reasonably inferred by aircraft type:

• Air Force - UH1(N/H)
• Army/Navy/Nat'l Guard - UH60 / H60 / UH72(A) / SH60(m)
• Coast Guard - MH65 / AS65
• POTUS - V22 / VH60(N) / VH3D / VH92(A)
• Medical - EC35 / EC45 / A109(e) / EC135 / EC145
• DC/MD/VA Police - AS350 / AS50 / MD52 / A139 / B429
• Park Police - B412 / B206

We have identified the following exceptions:

• AS50/AS350 is used both by DC Police and at least 3 different DHS helicopters that frequent the area
• B412 type is included in Federal Law Enforcement and Emergency support, most frequently Park Police but can also be Dept of Energy's 'Nuke Sniffer' helicopter
• B06 is included in Federal Law Enforcement here as Park Police #N33PP. However, it can also be @Chopper4Brad's news helicopter.
• B429 included in State and Local for Fairfax County Police, similarly H60 used in Military, but both crafts are used less often by FBI

Future considerations:

This dataset includes classes for three variations of UH60 Black Hawk: H60, VH60N, and H60 + Aux Fuel Tanks. We may merge this later, the initial thought process was the aux fuel tanks change the shape, and the distinct color of the VH60N (when photographed with front light) can be attributed uniquely to Marine Presidential Squadron unlike the rest which can be Army, National Guard, FBI or Customs and Border Patrol.

Release Notes:

• August 19th, 2022 1.3 - Adjusted rotation to +/- 5º, retrained model from scratch

• August 5th, 2022 1.2 - Now 12,000+ images, added many photos of previously under-represented classes R66, VH92A, S76

• Added CH47 class, added bird class, added plane class, added null examples

• Rotation: Between -10° and +10°

• May 6th, 2022 1.1 - Doubled images to 4061, specifically adding previously under-represented classes such as R66, V22 and A139 - added [image augmentations](https://docs.roboflow.com/image-transformations/image-augment

This layer began as part of the Virginia.gov data development project in 2008-2009. VGIN was tasked to generate cartography and data for a specific application for location of Virginia state agency locations in relation to the project. In 2010, The State Broadband Data Development Program (SBDD) Community Anchor Institutions (CAI) dataset leveraged much of that data and catalogued broadband service to a specific feature. The points have since been checked and updated annually as part of the Virginia Landmark dataset. The data is matched to the Virginia Address Point dataset. There are numerous data sources associated to the point. The general development methodology is as follows: The facility data was extracted and geocoded to the VGIN Geocoding service. If results were positioned on the Road Centerline by the RCL locator, those features were subsequently updated and moved to match the address point in the data layer. Unmatched results were added to the map. Non-spatial address location data is harvested into a spreadsheet by the source agency and checked against the GIS data annually. Fields for Landmark Name, Place Type, Source, and Source Type can be used to differentiate specific data as stored in the dataset.Full VA Landmark Database: https://vgin.vdem.virginia.gov/datasets/VGIN::virginia-landmarks/explore

This dataset contains the all-India and year-wise suicides of Indian Armed Forces and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). Indian Armed Forces is further categorized into Army, Navy, and Air Force, while CAPFs is divided into seven units- Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security Guard (NSG), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Note: 1. The data of suicides in Indian Armed Forces is available from 2010 to 2019. 2. The data of suicides in all CAPFs cumulatively is available from 2011 to 2023(August). 3. The data of suicides in unit-wise CAPFs is available from 2013 to 2022, with 2016 having data only till June.

Afghanistan Military Expenditure data was reported at 23,040.000 AFN mn in 2022. This records an increase from the previous number of 21,495.833 AFN mn for 2021. Afghanistan Military Expenditure data is updated yearly, averaging 12,117.833 AFN mn from Mar 1971 (Median) to 2022, with 24 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 23,040.000 AFN mn in 2022 and a record low of 1,282.500 AFN mn in 1971. Afghanistan Military Expenditure data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Afghanistan – Table AF.World Bank.WDI: Defense and Official Development Assistance. Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country). Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans' benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons. This definition cannot be applied for all countries, however, since that would require much more detailed information than is available about what is included in military budgets and off-budget military expenditure items. (For example, military budgets might or might not cover civil defense, reserves and auxiliary forces, police and paramilitary forces, dual-purpose forces such as military and civilian police, military grants in kind, pensions for military personnel, and social security contributions paid by one part of government to another.);Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Yearbook: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security.;;Data for some countries are based on partial or uncertain data or rough estimates. For additional details please refer to the military expenditure database on the SIPRI website: https://sipri.org/databases/milex