UK satellites to boost maritime security on track for 2025 launch

A satellite developed by the UK business Horizon Technologies has successfully completed its Critical Design Review (CDR), and is on schedule for launch in mid-2025, the UK Space Agency announced today.

The Amber-2 Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Satellite will play a key role in detecting ‘dark vessels’ at sea, such as those involved in illegal immigration, illegal fishing activities, drug smuggling, ship-to-ship transfers of goods and evading sanctions.

The development of the satellite is supported by a £1.2 million investment from the UK Space Agency. The wider Amber Programme has been designed to meet the MDA requirements of the Royal Navy via the Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) in Portsmouth.

The follow-on satellite Amber-3 is also progressing, with Horizon Technologies currently accepting industry-wide proposals from potential spacecraft/bus suppliers for the build, and a targeted launch date of late 2025.

The Amber satellites work by detecting radio frequency (RF) signals enabling the identification of satphones and navigation radars, so when vessels engaged in illegal activities turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) they can still be tracked. Over the past year, several governments have been testing the Horizon Technologies Amber’s Signal Acquisition System with impressive results.