ATAK FAQ
Short, direct answers to the questions people actually ask about ATAK and the wider TAK ecosystem. For the full build-up, see What Is ATAK?.
What is ATAK?
ATAK is a moving-map app for Android that gives a team a shared, real-time picture: everyone's location, markers on things that matter, drawings and routes, map-aware chat, and live sensor or video feeds. The acronym means Android Team Awareness Kit in civilian use and Android Tactical Assault Kit in military use. It is the same app under both names.
Is ATAK free?
The app itself is free. The civilian build, ATAK-CIV, is available after a free registration at TAK.gov, and on the Google Play Store. The real costs of a TAK program are the devices, an optional server, mesh radios if you go off-grid, and any integration work, not a license for the app.
What is the difference between ATAK, iTAK, WinTAK, TAKX, and WebTAK?
They are all clients in the same family that speak the same protocol to the same server. ATAK runs on Android and is the most capable. iTAK and TAKAware run on iOS with a reduced feature set. WinTAK runs on Windows and is common in operations centers, but it is slated to sunset in 2026. TAKX is the Linux-based desktop successor consolidating WinTAK and RaptorX across multiple operating systems. WebTAK runs in a browser with no install and is the only client that supports Common Access Card login.
What is CivTAK versus the military version?
CivTAK is the civilian build, ATAK-CIV, export-classified EAR99 and broadly available. The military build, ATAK-MIL, requires a verified government or defense-contractor account. The civilian build is the right starting point for most commercial and first-responder work at the unclassified tier.
Do I need a TAK server to use ATAK?
No, not always. A small co-located team can share peer-to-peer over a mesh radio network with no server at all. You need a server when devices on different networks must share one picture, when you want central control of identity and data, or when you want to persist missions and data over time.
How does ATAK work without cell service?
ATAK uses whatever the device has by default: cellular or Wi-Fi. To run off-grid you bridge it onto a radio network through a plugin. Common options are mesh radios that form a self-healing Mobile Ad-hoc Network, such as the goTenna Pro series or open-source Meshtastic on LoRa radios, plus HF for beyond-line-of-sight reach and SATCOM for long-haul links. ATAK is the picture, the radio is the pipe, and the plugin is the adapter between them.
What is a CoT message?
CoT stands for Cursor on Target. It is the small XML message format that every TAK client and server uses to say "this thing, of this type, is at this position, as of this time." Because everything speaks CoT, any sensor or system that can emit valid CoT can put a track on everyone's map. It is the single most important concept for anyone integrating with TAK.
What is a data package?
A data package, also called a Mission Package, is a ZIP file with a manifest and a folder structure that a client fetches and auto-installs. It can carry connection settings, certificates, imagery, overlays, photos, and CoT objects. The most useful kind is an enrollment data package that configures a new device's server connection and certificate in one import, so you can onboard a whole fleet quickly.
What imagery can ATAK use?
A wide range. Online tile sources over XYZ, WMS, and WMTS; offline cached imagery in formats like MBTiles for no-connection use; KML, KMZ, and GeoPDF overlays; GRG overlays for objective labeling; and DTED for terrain and line-of-sight analysis. Imagery and connectivity are separate problems, so you can run fully offline, fully online, or any blend.
What are EUDs?
EUD stands for End User Device, the phone, tablet, or laptop a person carries running a TAK client. In TAK programs the EUDs, not the software, are usually the largest line item, which is why device selection is a real planning decision rather than an afterthought.
What is federation in TAK?
Federation is how two or more TAK servers share selected data across network, agency, or national boundaries while each side keeps control of its own data. Modern federation runs through a Federation Hub in a hub-and-spoke topology, with policy-based filtering and links that can be one-way or two-way. It is what turns TAK from a single-team tool into a coalition tool.
What is a plugin and why won't mine load?
A plugin is a companion module that adds capability to ATAK, for example video, UAS control, sensor bridges, or imagery providers. Plugins are version-locked to a specific ATAK build, and a version mismatch is by far the most common reason a plugin fails to load. If you are moving data rather than touching hardware, sending CoT to the server directly is often a more durable integration path than a plugin.
Can ATAK run fully air-gapped?
Yes. A server and clients can run on an isolated network with no internet path, configured entirely from local data packages and offline imagery such as cached MBTiles. Air-gapped and disconnected deployments are common for classified enclaves and for anyone who treats cloud dependency as an operational risk.
What is TAK as a Service?
TAKaaS is a managed deployment where a vendor runs and maintains the TAK server for you and increasingly pushes user and device management down to edge operators. It removes the backend burden from small teams, and it is a fast-developing part of the ecosystem in 2026.
What hardware and software does a TAK server need?
The server runs on Java 17 against a PostgreSQL database with the PostGIS spatial extension, on Linux distributions such as RHEL or Ubuntu. It scales from a Raspberry Pi 4 for a minimal node up to a data center. Clients connect over TLS, most commonly on port 8089 for streaming CoT.
Is ATAK secure?
Client-to-server connections use TLS with client certificates, typically delivered through a data package, and federation can use mutual certificates or JSON Web Token authentication. Security in practice depends on configuration: avoid insecure ports, manage certificates properly, and scope data with the in, out, and both group roles. The software supports strong security; a weak deployment undermines it.
What is the difference between SSA-style awareness and a Common Operating Picture here?
ATAK is one of the most common tools for building and sharing a Common Operating Picture, the single shared view of who and what is where. The picture is only as good as the feeds and the fusion behind it, which is where sensor integration and a decision layer come in. See What Is a Common Operating Picture?.
What is the difference between CONOPS and CONUSE?
CONOPS, Concept of Operations, describes how a mission will be accomplished overall. CONUSE, Concept of Use, describes how a specific capability such as ATAK will be employed inside that mission: who carries it, on what device, over what comms, configured how. A serious ATAK rollout writes a CONUSE, because device, comms, federation, and onboarding choices live there.
Can drones and other sensors feed into ATAK?
Yes. UAS feeds, cameras, and sensors integrate either through purpose-built plugins or by emitting CoT to the server. Video can be streamed onto the map over RTSP and RTSPS. Any sensor that can be made to produce CoT can appear as a track for the whole team.
What ports does TAK use?
The common ones are 8089 for SSL CoT streaming, 8087 for plain TCP, 8443 for the admin console, and 8446 for certificate enrollment and WebTAK. Federation uses the 9000 series, including 9001 from server to hub, 9102 for the V2 hub broker, and 9103 for token federation.
How does a system integrate with ATAK the right way?
Two paths. Use a plugin when you must control device hardware, accepting that it is version-locked to the ATAK build. Send CoT to the server when you are moving data, which ages far better across client updates. For data-and-decision products, server-side CoT is usually the cleaner choice.
Where does Empyrean fit with ATAK?
ATAK is already in a lot of hands, so we treat it as a place to deliver fused tracks, alerts, and decision products onto a map operators already trust, rather than something to replace. The integration is pattern-based and speaks CoT. The details and a short walkthrough live in the ATAK Integration & Deployment recipe.
