As space becomes a hotspot of modern war and global attention remains focused on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, artificial intelligence is now at the fore of tracking and analyzing vessels, (From Forbes.com)
Paired with satellite technology, AI is proving capable of spotting suspicious patterns at sea – showing potential to draw back the veil on vessels used covertly by Russia, China and Iran in what is now called the shadow fleet. Shadow fleet vessels disguise their identity and purpose through a broad range of deceptive activities, including spoofing their locations and destinations.
Last week, lawmakers and national security personnel gathered for the grand opening of a new Maritime Intelligence Center launched by SynMax Intelligence in Washington, D.C., in an event that demonstrated how far AI has come in the world of geospatial intelligence analysis.
Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered an address at the center’s inauguration in which he called for the technology to be used to track illegal Chinese fishing vessels.
“The scale of the Chinese distance water fleet is staggering. It has thousands of vessels with some public estimates as high as 16,000 vessels. Between 2022 and 2024, it accounted for 44% of global fishing across 110 million hours in the waters of 90 countries,” said Cruz.
Cruz asserted that the fleet causes environmental damage and threatens endangered wildlife. He explained that the United States faces challenges to sanction such activities and that ships engaging in illegal activities can hamper maritime law enforcement efforts by operating without using their AIS, or automated identification system, while relying on support vessels to sustain them.
He pointed out that vessels operating as “dark” for extended periods are vulnerable in their reliance on larger support vessels, such as tankers, to sustain their illegal activities.
“The support vessels can absolutely be sanctioned. They’re limited in number,” said Cruz, adding that 55 tankers accounted for nearly half of trans-shipment events recorded in 2024.
“They need all the things ships normally need and they have to keep their AIS on because they have to be found by the other ships. So, if we can identify them and sanction them, we can powerfully disrupt China’s illegal fishing operations globally.”
He called for the greater integration of AI and satellite analysis into U.S. maritime security operations.
“I would like to see the Coast Guard using it extensively and specifically I want to see them use it to disrupt Chinese illegal fishing,” Cruz said.
The Maritime Intelligence Center is leveraging AI agents to analyze data captured by satellites. The technology interprets patterns in vessel movements, including changes to a ship’s identity and destination, and a ship “going dark” by switching off its AIS beacon at particular times or locations.
Using this approach, the SynMax system, called Theia, enables AI to perform tasks previously relegated to intelligence analysts.
Eric Anderson, CEO of SynMax, said in an interview that the goal of the system is not to replace human analysts but to serve as a force multiplier.
“The ocean is an opaque space and for the last 20 years it has been one where nefarious actors take advantage of that fact. The dark fleet has changed the game,” Anderson said. “Vessels don’t only stop broadcasting their location. More commonly they spoof their location.”
“What we can do is give people a clear picture of the real-time location of where these vessels actually are and characterize their behavior at scale that lets them take action.”
Anderson noted that shadow fleet activity poses a threat to world commerce by undermining free trade and putting legitimate commercial vessels in the crosshairs of political conflict.
He cited commercial vessels coming under fire in the Strait of Hormuz as a key example. “This creates a cost for everyone. We all pay for the cost of the danger of the ocean,” he said.
The goal of the new Maritime Intelligence Center is to provide a space where government decision makers, including national security and law enforcement professionals, can come together with leaders in private industry to exchange data and awareness of shared problems.
“The ocean is how we transact our goods and services. The ability for countries to transact their business on the ocean is what creates a peaceful world,” Anderson said. “The way that we have a stable and successful society is when we do business with each other.”
As artificial intelligence is used across many sectors of private industry and increasingly for military use, it is now gaining traction as a means of ending obscurity at sea. As the capacity for global surveillance increases through the use of drones and satellite technology, AI will make it harder to obscure suspicious patterns of behavior.
While the shadow fleet continues to present problems to commerce and international security, is its heyday already over? As surveillance and AI analysis peel back the layers on covert maritime activities, the shadow fleet could potentially disintegrate as its shadow of secrecy disappears.
