Geospatial Intelligence
It has never been more important to know what vessels are in the water, where they are, and for what purpose. Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is a critical need in military applications so resources can be utilized for potential or known threats, rather than searching for general maritime awareness.
Traditional MDA involving sonar, drones, and other legacy technology, such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), is flawed. Individuals can tamper with or disable AIS transponders, and go dark at sea.
When a vessel is operating legitimately and within legal practices, the AIS is likely to be on and functioning. However, the oceans are vast and there are reasons vessels may not wish to be visible.
The estimate is that within the 360,700,000 km2 of the ocean’s total area, 90% of the world’s trade is carried out. Plus, about 80% of the time, ships simply cannot be located. Approximately 90% of polluters cannot be localized, and 20% of fish served at dinner comes from illegal fishing.
These are all problems and they are not going away. Information is needed in near real time and Unseenlabs is the rapidly growing, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) solution.
Ships go dark for many reasons. Sometimes the vessels and their operators are staying safe in a war zone; however, many times, they are up to no good. Hidden ships may be avoiding war regulations to transport oil or other supplies. They may be dumping waste and wrecking our oceans. Some dark ships are stealing containers full of goods and taxing economies. What is needed is an alternate tool set.
Unseenlabs uses geospatial technology and radio frequency for MDA and the firm’s solution is used by militaries to see through weather and the darkness, and to use state-of-the-art technology to patrol waterways and prevent piracy, dumping, illegal fishing, and more. MDA is also used in the commercial space to protect high value cargo.
In general, GEOINT provides numerous tools for locating stealthy, hidden, dark, or invisible ships. This satellite and imagery analysis is now the best practice solution for locating vessels at sea.
While there are other methods, sensor integration, monitoring movement, and predictive analysis, these are limiting and inferior — they’re best used in collaboration with Unseenlabs.
For militaries and organizations that are military supported, the success of a mission, and the maintenance of safe seas, is dependent on information that is infinitely harder to obtain when ships go dark and disable their transponders.
MDA is a critical concern for everyone, especially the military and law enforcement. As maritime traffic steadily grows, there is a corresponding rise in unusual and unlawful activities at sea. The many overseers of maritime activity often lack reliable data on sea traffic.
The primary vessel location tool in use today is AIS, a technology that was not originally designed to track ships and can be easily turned off or tampered with.
With Unseenlabs, the maritime sector can locate ships by detecting and characterizing their passive electromagnetic signature, the radio frequency (RF) fingerprint. RF technology using dedicated satellites is able to track any ship, anywhere, and at anytime —– even when other systems are unable to do so. GEOINT offers powerful tools, and yet when ships’ AIS transponders and sensors fail to track, surveillance is stymied. Predictive analytics becomes less effective if crew members on ships deliberately interfere with their AIS systems.
Military agencies are working to resolve challenges locating ships. One of the many challenges that required resolution was light; ships are hidden in the dark when they are engaged in illegal activities.
Another challenge is a lack of interpretable data that would enable quicker processing and delivery of intelligence to the end-client more accurately and faster than previous technologies were able to deliver. Too much time was lost, and damage was done in the interim.
Last fall, as global military action evolved, there were many news articles, including one in Newsweek, that shined a light on hidden or dark ships that are actively evading detection. In Newsweek’s example, experts believe the evasion efforts were related to transporting military supplies in secret and using a path that was not sanctioned by maritime regulations.
There are myriad examples of ships seeking to hide in the military setting, including some engaged in either the transport of oil to other regions against embargoes, involved in spy activities, and more.
The ultimate cost of undetected and apprehended hidden ships who are engaged in illegal activity is great, including ocean pollution and pirates. A comprehensive understanding of the maritime domain is essential, and Unseenlabs is now filling the gap.
The company’s space-based RF detection solution identifies the digital, passive, electromagnetic signature of any ship, anytime (day or night), anywhere on the globe, regardless of weather conditions. The ship does not need to cooperate or maintain any transponder system. The solution works during weather, such as heavy fog or rain, that might otherwise make visibility difficult.
Unseenlabs operates a unique, satellite-based technology to identify, recognize and track a broad range of radio emitters. The solution collects and processes proprietary data for maritime surveillance, including a characterization of an emitter’s technical parameters.
Prior to Unseenlabs, there was a significant gap in visibility within oceans to identify ships that disabled transponders. Unseenlabs recently added two new satellites dedicated to their solution and now has a 13 satellite constellation on- orbit. The company’s aim is to have a 25 satellite constellation on- orbit by 2025. With these additional satellites, more governments, insurers, shipowners, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) now have access to RF surveillance to identify ships seeking to evade detection, ensure maritime security, and protect the marine environment.
After a $90 million injection of investor funds, Unseenlabs is growing its capabilities and its RF data solutions for MDA in a near real-time response with trusted data.
The Earth Observation (EO) market, military and commercial, is paying close attention to the Unseenlabs solution. RF mono satellite technology allows efficient data collection and produces a new type of data that supplements and synergizes with current technologies, including AIS, SAR, and Optical, bringing vessel monitoring and tracking to a whole new level of accuracy. It is easily integrated as an API.
Unseenlabs is providing reliable, core intelligence competency to a variety of industries, including defense, intelligence, environmental, insurance, and other governmental agencies. They are the effective eyes in the sky protecting our oceans.