Ports & shipping
Ports and the fleets that serve them face threats from the water, the air and the network. Inshore passive radar, satellite vessel monitoring, maritime cyber protection and counter-drone defence secure trade from anchorage to gate.
Trade concentrated in a vulnerable footprint
A commercial port compresses a nation's trade into a small, fixed footprint where anything that stops movement stops revenue. The vulnerability is unusual in that it comes from three directions at once: from the water, where small-craft approach and inshore intrusion are hard to see; from the air, where a drone can loiter over cranes and berths; and from the network, where the systems that schedule ships and move containers are as critical as the quay itself.
The shipping that serves the port extends the same exposure out to sea and into the fleet's own systems. Vessels approaching or at anchor present a monitoring problem beyond the reach of fixed harbour sensors, and the operational-technology aboard modern ships is a target in its own right. Securing this sector means treating anchorage, airspace, inshore water and network as one continuous problem from the open approaches to the terminal gate.
Securing the approaches, the water and the network
Ocean surveillance satellites provide the wide-area layer, detecting and classifying vessel activity across the approaches and the exclusive economic zone well beyond coastal radar, so a port sees what is coming before it arrives. Closer in, non-emitting Passive Radar tracks the low, slow and small surface craft closing on the terminals without announcing itself, while Counter-UAS & loitering munitions hold the airspace over berths and cranes against loitering drones.
Maritime Cybersecurity protects the digital half, hardening and monitoring the operational- and information-technology estates of both port and vessel: the scheduling, handling and shipboard systems that keep trade flowing. These are live catalogue capabilities specified to interlock: the approaches watched from orbit, the inshore water read by passive radar, the airspace held, and the systems defended, so no single vector is left open while attention is on another.
How a maritime engagement runs
The engagement opens with a briefing across the port's real geometry, its approaches, its inshore risk, its airspace and its systems estate, so capability is matched to the harbour as it operates rather than to a generic template. Export-control position and the end-user-certificate chain are confirmed before representation, keeping a programme at a strategic trade node governed and traceable from the outset.
Delivery is phased from the water inward: wide-area satellite monitoring and inshore passive radar first, then the airspace screen, then the cyber protection that spans port and fleet. In-region sustainment and operator training run throughout, so the port authority and its operators carry the capability forward. One accountable team stays responsible from first briefing through long-term operation, keeping the gateway defended as trade patterns change.
Relevant capability
Emitter-free surveillance
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Maritime domain awareness from orbit
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Protection for ships and ports
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Layered defence against the drone threat
Capability page →Problems this sector faces
Ports concentrate national trade in a small, exposed footprint, vulnerable from the water, the air and the network. Inshore passive radar, vessel monitoring from orbit, counter-drone defence and maritime cyber protection secure the gateway end to end.
Problem pagePiracy raises insurance costs, deters shipping and endangers seafarers. Space-based vessel monitoring, aerial patrol and hardened port and vessel systems let coastal states detect threats early and protect the shipping lanes their economies depend on.
Problem pageContraband, fuel and untaxed goods cross borders wherever surveillance is thinnest, draining customs revenue. Wide-area overhead surveillance and low-observable radar coverage let enforcement concentrate where the traffic actually moves.
Problem pageWhere this sector engages us
Frequently asked questions
How are small craft around a harbour detected?
Non-emitting Passive Radar tracks the low, slow and small surface craft closing on a harbour without announcing itself, from the open water of the approaches to the basin itself. It gives port security an inshore picture that adds coverage without advertising where it lies, closing the gap that airspace and fixed surface radar cannot address.
Does protection extend to the ships as well as the port?
Yes. Maritime Cybersecurity covers the operational- and information-technology estates of both port and vessel: the shipboard systems as well as the terminal's scheduling and handling systems. Trade depends on both staying operational, so the protection spans the whole chain rather than stopping at the quay.
Can a port see threats before they reach the harbour?
Ocean surveillance satellites detect and classify vessel activity across the approaches and the wider exclusive economic zone, well beyond coastal radar range. A port gains warning of approaching threats and unusual movements early enough to act, rather than discovering them at the harbour entrance where options are already narrow.