Miles Jamison 
- Airbus’ SPOT satellites will provide daily vessel detection imagery
- The service will use AI to identify ships independently of AIS transmissions
- Satellite imagery will complement AIS data, which includes vessel position, speed and course
Aerospace technology company Airbus and Kpler, a global trade intelligence provider, have partnered to deploy a daily satellite service that detects vessels independently of their automatic identification system, or AIS, signals.
Kpler said Tuesday the service will identify ships that stop transmitting, spoof their positions or lose positioning data to Global Navigation Satellite System, or GNSS, interference, adding a new layer to Kpler’s existing satellite and AIS network.
What Gaps Will the Vessel Detection Service Address?
The Airbus-Kpler service will use satellite imagery to detect vessels at sea and in port, giving customers another way to assess activity when AIS data is incomplete or questionable.
The International Maritime Organization mandates AIS, which carries vessel details such as position, speed, course, draught and destination. Kpler’s network collects these AIS signals each day.
Kpler also provides AI-enabled maritime intelligence and analytics through its Model Context Protocol capability, which connects large language models with the company’s proprietary datasets. The technology allows government and defense analysts to query trade and supply chain information and generate dashboards and trend analyses using natural-language prompts.
How Will Airbus’ SPOT Satellites Detect Vessels?
Airbus’ SPOT satellites will provide daily imagery covering a 60-kilometer swath at 1.5-meter resolution. The service will apply artificial intelligence to the images to locate ships in coastal waters, open seas and port areas.
Jean-Charles Gordon, vice president of maritime and logistics at Kpler and a moderator at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Defense R&D Summit in January, emphasized that integrating AIS data with satellite imagery and other independent sources provides a more comprehensive and verifiable view of maritime activity.
He said the combined intelligence helps distinguish widespread signal disruptions from cases in which individual vessels intentionally disable their AIS signals to avoid detection, supporting transparency, maritime security and trust in global shipping.
