"By enabling real-time intelligence with RF signal monitoring, space reconnaissance plays a critical role in strengthening geopolitical and economic security across the globe."
Space reconnaissance is a strategy that leverages small satellites in Low Earth Orbit to gather Earth-based intelligence, with Radio Frequency (RF) geolocation standing out for its ability to detect and monitor signals in UHF and VHF frequency bands. From Low Earth Orbit (LEO), satellites are able to capture RF emissions from ships, land-based transmitters, push-to-talk radios, and more, delivering insights into hidden or illegal activities.
RF data are critical for identifying things like ‘dark ships’ - which are vessels that disable their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) to evade detection while operating at sea. These data are used to monitor smuggling operations, support maritime security, and even bolster national defense intelligence.
As tensions continue to rise amidst global conflicts, RF signal monitoring has become an indispensable tactic for addressing sanctions evasion, illegal (IUU) fishing, and regional conflicts - all of which use communications warfare in some way, shape, or form.
By enabling real-time intelligence with RF signal monitoring, space reconnaissance plays a critical role in strengthening geopolitical and economic security across the globe.
The Geopolitical Importance of RF-Based Space Reconnaissance
The geopolitical significance of RF-based space reconnaissance lies in its ability to monitor and mitigate illicit activities - such as dark shipping - that occur on the international stage.
As nations and private organizations increasingly rely on RF geolocation, space reconnaissance has become an essential tool in enforcing sanctions, ensuring maritime security, and countering illegal trade of humans, goods, weapons, and drugs.
Dark Shipping and Evasion Tactics
Dark shipping describes an instance where a vessel operator deliberately turns off their AIS transponders to avoid detection at sea - a tactic commonly used for things like sanctions evasion, illegal fishing, and smuggling.
An example of this would be when Iranian oil tankers disable their AIS systems during illicit shipments of goods and materials like crude oil. According to data from United Against Nuclear Tehran, Tehran has been exporting around 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day despite trade sanctions imposed on the country. Much of that oil is being transported via dark shipping and similar strategies.
North Korea is another state example where dark shipping is being used for arms and goods smuggling. The disputed South China Sea is one of the primary pathways for this illicit trade and shows no sign of slowing anytime soon. China is also notorious for its illegal fishing fleets, which have ravaged fisheries and thriving ecosystems using dark shipping and spoofing tactics.
How Is RF Geolocation Used to Combat Dark Shipping?
Since dark shipping often involves RF communications, like push-to-talk radios and other RF emitters, while AIS transponders are turned off, RF geolocation is one of the best ways to combat the strategy.
RF geolocation involves identifying and geolocating the signal sources using triangulation - a strategy that uses three or more satellites in LEO to execute. Triangulation provides a clear path for insights into the movement and activities of vessels operating without their AIS and can be paired with other types of data and open-source imagery to corroborate suspicions.
Aviation
In aviation, RF geolocation is used to track aircraft that disable their ADS-B transponders to avoid monitoring or detection. While this tactic is sometimes used for things like smuggling or unauthorized military flights, it’s also used legitimately in conflict zones (like Russia and Ukraine) where aircraft need to operate covertly for safety reasons.
How Is RF Geolocation Used to Build Resilience to Aviation Risks?
Rogue cargo planes transporting arms or sanctions goods often try to avoid traditional aviation radar by flying in unregulated airspace, and RF space reconnaissance can detect the aircraft by monitoring RF emissions or communication signals from VHF radio transmissions between pilots and ground stations.
In December 2024, Russian defense systems downed an Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft in Khazakstan, resulting in a crash that killed 38 people onboard. This is a clear example of why commercial aircraft might choose to fly in contested regions without the use of ADS-B, albeit for legitimate safety concerns.
As geopolitical tensions continue to grow, governments and defense organizations rely more and more on RF geolocation to bolster airspace security and track illicit aviation activity in contested regions around the globe.
Geopolitical Players and Capabilities
With the onset of the digital age, nearly every global superpower is investing heavily in RF-based detection and space reconnaissance capabilities.
The U.S. and Five Eyes Alliance: Focus on monitoring dark shipping to enforce sanctions and protect maritime borders.
European Union Initiatives: Target illegal fishing through RF monitoring combined with other surveillance tools.
Emerging Players: Countries like India and Japan are stepping up investments in space reconnaissance to monitor maritime security and regional threats.
International Agreements and Countermeasures
Regarding the maritime domain, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations have pushed for treaties to regulate and address dark shipping and all tangible illicit maritime activity. Space reconnaissance, specifically using RF signal detection, is increasingly viewed as a critical enforcement tool - one of the only strategies available to combat dark shipping and maritime spoofing.
Recent government initiatives highlight the importance of RF-based surveillance for securing shipping lanes, deterring illegal trade, and ensuring compliance with international maritime law.
Spire Global vs. Hawkeye 360 vs. Kleos Space
Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are equipped with RF geolocation technologies to detect and triangulate signals emitted by RF sources. By monitoring UHF and VHF bands, these systems can pinpoint the location and origin of the signals.
This capability supports maritime, aviation, and terrestrial intelligence, providing necessary insights into activities that would otherwise remain hidden.
Spire Global
Spire Global is a space-as-a-service company that designs, builds, and operates the world’s largest multi-satellite constellation. Spire’s services include UHF and VHF signal detection and geolocation, which are used in a wide range of industries and applications.
Capabilities
Spire uses a Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA) approach with multiple satellites in LEO for RF geolocation, which allows for source triangulation with a high level of precision.
TDOA: Compares the timing in which RF signals reach different satellite receivers, calculating the difference to triangulate the signal's origin.
FDOA: Analysis of the ‘Doppler shift,’ which helps evaluate a more accurate geolocation estimate based on how signals are received from the perspective of moving satellites.
This approach, coupled with an expanding constellation of small RF-enabled satellites, gives Spire the capability to provide near-global data collection in real time, which is imperative for impactful decision-making. Since Spire’s small satellites are designed, constructed, and deployed affordably and quickly and have a variety of flexible payloads that can be included, it makes the architecture of the company’s offerings inherently scalable.
Spire Global uses its TDOA/FDOA technology to geolocate RF signals with exceptional precision, while its constellation of small satellites ensures global coverage and real-time data delivery.
Unique Features
Spire stands out as a space-as-a-service provider due to its ability to collect a wide variety of RF signals (including from UHF/VHF bands) with low latency times and some of the most comprehensive LEO-collected datasets.
Since Spire is able to design, construct, launch, and manage unique constellations for each of its customers, it is able to rapidly deploy satellites and data collection payloads for countless applications, providing scalable solutions for businesses looking to adopt space-based strategies.
Applications
The beauty of Spires services and satellite constellations is that they can be deployed to satisfy a wide array of applications, including:
Maritime Domain Awareness
Dark Ship Identification & Sanctions Compliance
GNSS Jamming and Spoofing Detection
Military & Defense Intelligence
Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) Detection and Monitoring
Search & Rescue
Smuggling, Trafficking, and other Illicit Activity
Infrastructure Monitoring
Hawkeye 360
Hawkeye 360 is one of the global leaders in space-based RF detection and geolocation. The company was one of the first private companies to deploy RF-dedicated satellite technologies and continues to serve government, defense, and commercial customers with interests in space strategies.
Capabilities
Hawkeye 360 is among the leading global providers of RF geolocation and data analytics, although the company seems to have stopped advertising its UHF and VHF signal detection capabilities lately. While that doesn’t mean they don’t offer those services, it seems they might be moving away from those offerings.
Still, Hawkeye’s satellite constellations, which are often flown in formation as clusters, work to detect, classify, and triangulate RF emissions in land, sea, and air-based domains. Hawkeye’s approach to RF detection and geolocation makes it one of the most accurate and capable services for signals in the primary RF bands, which have historically included UHF and VHF bands.
Hawkeye’s proprietary constellations support TDOA-based triangulation, which allows them to provide their customers with highly accurate RF geolocation information for land, sea, and air domains. The company integrates its RF data with other data sources to provide the most up-to-date and accurate intelligence to customers in both government and commercial/private sectors.
Unique Features
Being one of the industry leaders in RF detection and geolocation, Hawkeye has a few unique features that help it stand apart from its competitors.
Hawkeye’s satellites are typically flown in clusters of 3 and in formations that provide the most accurate, comprehensive coverage for its customers' needs. So, rather than relying on a single or dual satellite approach, Hawkeye does stand out from its competitors with the cluster formations.
Further, Hawkeye 360 offers RF intelligence on land, at sea, or for aviation purposes. Many space-as-a-service providers specialize in one domain, so the ability to task satellites across multiple domains provides a clear and unique capability for Hawkeye customers.
Lastly, Hawkeye uses AI-driven strategies to classify specific and/or suspicious RF signals, which enhances the effectiveness of defense, counter-intelligence, and regulatory enforcement.
Applications
Hawkeye has gained a reputation similar to that of Spire Global, providing RF detection and geolocation services for a range of applications, including:
Maritime Security and Intelligence
Dark Ship Detection
National Defense and Security
RF Interference Detection and Monitoring
Search and Rescue
Disaster Response
Kleos Space
Kleos Space is a satellite intelligence company based out of Luxembourg that focuses on RF geolocation for the maritime domain. Kleos deploys mission-specific satellite clusters that can be fine-tuned for each customer or mission, giving a hyper-focused approach to those with specific needs.
Capabilities
Kleos Space has made a name for itself in the maritime space, offering RF geolocation services designed to help detect vessels involved with illegal (IUU) fishing, smuggling, and illicit trade. The company deploys satellites in mission-specific clusters, which are primarily used to passively detect RF signals from various sources.
Kleos satellite clusters are deployed strategically, positioned over targeted zones known for illicit maritime activity, including conflict zones and known illicit trade routes. The intelligence provided gives its customers a strategic advantage in the maritime domain, and Kleos services are well-trusted in the industry.
Like Spire and Hawkeye, Kleos utilizes TDOA-based triangulation for RF source geolocation and can pinpoint RF emissions even when ships disable their AIS transponders.
Unique Features
Kleos specializes in Maritime RF detection and surveillance, offering regional or location-specific RF intelligence - all optimized for mission-specific needs.
Rather than tasking satellites to monitor a specific area, vessel, or fleet, Kleos has historically provided broad-scale, passive RF monitoring. This means that customers with specific interests can monitor large areas and make decisions based on that intelligence, which tends to be far more cost-effective than other RF strategies.
Since Kleos can persistently monitor specific geographic regions, it provides its customers with a clear perspective on activities in that location or area.
Applications
Kleos provides RF intelligence for a wide range of applications, although they primarily focus on maritime applications. These applications include:
Dark Ship Detection
Illegal (IUU) Fishing
Trafficking and Smuggling
Maritime Border and Coastal Security
Sanctions and Trade Compliance/Enforcement
Why Spire Stands Out
Spire seems to be the leading provider of RF signal detection and geolocation services, although each company has its own strengths and weaknesses. Here’s why Spire stands out to us.
1. Near-Global Coverage with a Growing LEO Constellation
Spire owns and operates one of the largest RF-enabled satellite constellations in the world, allowing for near-global RF detection and geolocation capabilities in real-time. Spire is able to fill the gaps that most other RF services cannot.
2. Advanced RF Signal Detection & Geolocation
Spire uses a combination of TDOA/FDOA to geolocate RF emissions with an extremely high level of accuracy. Unlike most of its competitors, Spire can use multiple satellite constellations to provide a wider swath of intelligence, which can be used across different domains and applications.
3. Multi-Domain Intelligence
While most RF data providers specialize in maritime surveillance, Spire spans a wide range of industries and domains - including maritime, aviation, and terrestrial - providing much deeper insights into things like cross-continental trafficking and trade.
4. Low Latency Data Processing
Spire’s data processing pipeline allows its customers immediate access to RF intelligence with low-latency data transmissions - allowing for actionable intelligence in situations that demand timely data.
5. Rapid Constellation Development and Deployment
Since Spire uses a vertical integration approach to its services, which includes the design, build, and operation of constellations, it can rapidly deploy mission-specific payloads that are otherwise unreachable with other services.
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