New Contract Aims To Increase Security On The High Seas – Forbes

Kleos satellites make use of automatic identification system (AIS) signals transmitted by large ... [+] ships.

With so much ocean to cover, another satellite company has brokered an agreement to keep track of large ships sailing around the world.

Luxembourg-based data service company Kleos and Geollect, a geospatial intelligence and analysis company in the United Kingdom, signed an agreement to use Kleos' data for a new tool. Whats even more interesting is the pact (whose dollar amount was not disclosed) was signed before Kleos satellites begin operations.

Geollect plans to use the data from Kleos forthcoming satellites for "dark vessel tracking capability" using radio frequency transmissions from ships. These transmissions include both the automatic transmissions that all ships must use to show their port of origin and destination (among other pieces of data), and other radio frequency communications emanating from vessels.

Kleos can offer unprecedented situational awareness at sea with optimized revisit rates, said Peter Round, Kleos chair, in a statement. Revisit rates refers to the amount of time in between satellite passes over a particular region of the world. Round added that key regions of maritime interest in the United Kingdom include the Strait of Hormuz (between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman), the South China Sea and the coast of Africa.

Artist's impression of Kleos satellites.

Four Kleos Scouting Mission radio surveillance satellites are set for launch in February from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, India. This liftoff, which was delayed a few times from August for various reasons, is expected to start building out the Kleos constellation of satellites.

The system is meant to provide "a global picture of hidden maritime activity, enhancing the intelligence capability of government and commercial entities," Kleos said in 2019.

"It is a further way of narrowing down areas of interest that should be investigated more by the analyst, and the narrowing down speeds up the workflow reducing the amount of EO [Earth observation] imagery that would need to be analyzed," CEO Andy Bowyer added in an e-mail in August.

As the company has yet to launch its satellites, Kleos is pre-revenue and expects customer money to start flowing once the satellites begin sending data to Earth. Several more rounds of launches are expected in 2020 and 2021, and the company already completed an initial public offering (stock market launch) in 2018.

The ship-tracking space has already attracted several other companies, including Spire Global, which announced the debut of an integrated AIS product a few days ago.

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New Contract Aims To Increase Security On The High Seas - Forbes