Amber Maritime SIGINT Constellation
Horizon Technologies
CubeSat-based SIGINT payload constellation detecting and geolocating maritime RF emissions to identify dark vessels — 24 satellites planned, ~2.6% Earth coverage per satellite.
Technical specifications
- Coverage per satellite
- ~2.6% of Earth's surface
- Total coverage
- 12 million sq km covered at all times
- Revisit
- 3-12 Looks Per Day (LPD) with one CubeSat
- Planned constellation size
- 24 satellites
- Program
- UK Government IOD-3 Programme, UK Space Agency sponsored
About
Amber is Horizon Technologies’ space-based maritime domain awareness product, developed under the UK Government’s IOD-3 Programme and sponsored by the UK Space Agency (Amber-2 Phoenix mission). Unlike passive RF mapping, Amber produces true signals intelligence, collecting 24/7 without tasking and providing coverage of roughly 2.6% of Earth’s surface per satellite. It supports creation of a commercial dark-vessel database, illegal-fishing and piracy detection, and refugee-rescue use cases by correlating satellite-phone, Iridium, and radar detections with AIS data.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
