Rendition of SRT’s maritime domain surveillance system. Photo: SRT.

SRT Marine Systems announced that it will build and launch its own maritime monitoring satellite constellation called Ocean-Scan. The satellites will provide enhanced global vessel detection and tracking and a new recurring revenue source from Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) system project customers.

The Ocean-Scan system will initially comprise six satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), operating in a combination of equatorial and polar orbits to provide global coverage, but with enhanced coverage of the equatorial and border regions. SRT expects the constellation to be fully operational by 2019, and has also expressed the possibility of adding additional satellites.

SRT has selected Clyde Space to provide a microsatellite platform for the system, which will host a combination of sensor technologies, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) to enable accurate and reliable tracking of all types and sizes of vessels, with or without an identification transceiver. According to SRT, the fusion of multiple sensor technologies will enable accurate real time detection of illegal maritime activity as well as long range tracking of even small fishing boats.