Exclude Military NOTAMs: Cleaner Briefings for Civil Operations

If you've ever wondered why a briefing for your civil flight suddenly includes notices that don't seem to apply, you're not alone. Many feeds include military-origin NOTAMs—including US DoD (Department of Defense) NOTAMs—that are relevant to armed forces or contracted operators but not to civil ops. Today, we’re introducing a simple way to remove that noise: an Exclude Military NOTAMs filter.

How to use it

Open Edit Query on any NOTAM list and toggle the option labeled “Exclude military.” Your results will automatically hide military-only notices so you can focus on what materially affects your operation.

You can combine this with date/time filters to narrow to the exact window of your planned operation.

Why military NOTAMs appear in civil briefings

Some global sources include notices originating from defense channels (for example, US DoD procedural or internal-use notices). These often describe restrictions, procedure statuses, or operational instructions intended for military pilots or contracted operators. When those are ingested without dedicated filtering, they may appear in civil briefing packages even though they don’t apply to civil operations.

Key points:

• Military notices can mimic "airport/procedure" NOTAMs but are scoped to military authorization or policy.
• They may reference local designators or internal process states that don't reflect actual civil availability of a facility or procedure.
• They are best treated as out-of-scope for civil decision-making unless you operate under a military contract.

What are US DoD NOTAMs?

US DoD NOTAMs are notices created for US military operations. They can cover procedure authorization, special operating rules, equipment constraints, or policy-driven limitations that apply to military crews and aircraft. While they sometimes resemble civil “procedure” notices, they are not authoritative for civil availability on their own. Think of them like internal company notices—useful for the intended audience, potentially misleading for others.

Common ways US DoD NOTAMs show up in civil feeds:

• Procedure-related notes that look like approach/SID/DP changes but only affect military authorization.
• Facility or airspace guidance that differs from civil AIP status.
• Designators or series letters whose meanings vary by country or issuer; don’t assume a letter implies the same semantics globally.

Good practice for civil operators

• Use the Exclude Military filter for routine civil planning to reduce false alarms and misinterpretation.
• If something looks contradictory (e.g., a facility appears open locally but a notice says otherwise), check the source context—military-only notices often don’t reflect civil availability.
• Keep the filter off if you specifically need visibility into defense-related activity (e.g., situational awareness for special events or contracted ops).

How Notamify filters them

When you enable “Exclude military,” Notamify suppresses notices identified as military-only (including US DoD-origin items) from your results. This filtering does not remove true civil restrictions issued via AIP/State AIS channels—it targets defense-origin content to prevent confusion in civil planning. You can toggle it off at any time to restore full visibility.

Availability

The Exclude Military NOTAMs filter is available in Edit Query. It works alongside your date and time filters and respects your current ICAO selection.

API support

You can also exclude military NOTAMs via the API. Use the excluded_classifications parameter and include MIL:

{
  "excluded_classifications": ["MIL"]
}

Available options are DOM, FDC, INTL, and MIL. When empty, no classifications are excluded.

Have feedback or edge cases to share? Let us know—your input helps us keep briefings focused on what matters to civil operations.