With Iran and the United States engaged in a high‑stakes standoff over the Strait of Hormuz following a month-long war, Windward, leading Israeli maritime Intelligence company and Vantor, a leading provider of unified spatial intelligence, announced a new partnership that the companies say will bring continuous, automated visibility to global maritime activity by combining space‑based monitoring with artificial intelligence(AI).
The agreement integrates Vantor’s Sentry persistent monitoring system into Windward’s Maritime AI platform, creating a unified system designed to detect, identify, and track vessels, even when they disable their AIS (automatic identification system) transponders or attempt to obscure their identity.
According to the companies, usually detection of vessels happens in one system while identity verification and behavioral analysis takes place in another, forcing analysts to manually connect signals across AIS, radio frequency (RF), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and electro-optical imagery. The new partnership eliminates that gap by connecting vessel detection, identity, and behavior into a single, continuous intelligence loop.
The result is a persistent, automated intelligence layer that transforms maritime domain awareness from reactive analysis into a continuous, decision-ready system.
Bringing clarity to the darkness
Speaking to Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post, Windward CEO and co‑founder Ami Daniel said the partnership reflects a shift in how governments and commercial operators approach maritime intelligence.
The growing complexity of maritime activity, from the Russian shadow fleet to narcotics trafficking and tensions in areas such as the Strait of Hormuz, has increased the need for technology that can analyze large volumes of data.
“The world is starting to understand that the ocean is big, and if you want to understand it, you need technology,” he said. “There are so many ships on the seas, we help our customers pinpoint the needle in the haystack.”
Daniel described Vantor as “the leading satellite observation company in the world,” pointing to the December launch of its WorldView Legion next-generation constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites. “The revisit rate is higher, the resolution is 30 centimeters, and there are 10 satellites covering many areas of interest,” he told D&T. “It’s a powerful layer that allows us to fingerprint vessels at scale.”
Sentry at sea
Sentry, Vantor’s automated persistent monitoring system, drives automated multi-sensor tasking of Vantor’s high-resolution electro-optical (EO) imaging constellation and third-party SAR sensors for broad-area search, enabling seamless SAR-to-EO tip-and-cue workflows without manual intervention.
“From the Indo-Pacific to the Arctic, maritime activity is becoming more contested and complex, and adversaries are exploiting the seams between sensors, disabling AIS and masking identity faster than traditional workflows can keep pace,” Peter Wilczynski, chief product officer at Vantor, said.
“Windward has built a powerful intelligence layer that unifies maritime signals, and with Sentry, we’re adding the orchestration and identity layer that closes that gap to create an end-to-end monitoring system that delivers automated, persistent intelligence at the pace of real-world activity.”
According to a press release by the two companies, Sentry uses automated tasking of electro‑optical satellites and third‑party radar sensors to move from detection to confirmation without manual intervention.
Its AI‑driven fingerprinting capability creates a stable identity for each vessel based on imagery‑derived characteristics, allowing tracking across sensors, time, and geography.
Daniel explained that the system can determine not only whether a ship is present but also which ship it is, even when operators attempt to mask their identity through spoofing or the use of so‑called zombie identities.
The value of the partnership lies in the combination of scale, resolution, and the ability to maintain custody of vessels that go dark, he said.
“With all the dark shipping and spoofing rocketing, we give clarity,” he noted, pointing to recent examples, including activity around Kharg Island, where he said Windward was able to identify changes in loading patterns ahead of time and assess the effectiveness of maritime blockades.
Identifying anything that floats
The companies say that the system extends beyond tankers and large commercial vessels. According to Daniel, many of the challenges Windward addresses involve smaller fishing boats and other craft that are difficult to track with traditional tools.
“A lot of the challenges we deal with are the smaller fishing boats,” he said.
While the system is not designed for fast craft used by groups such as the IRGC, it can still determine whether such vessels are being operated, he said. “We can identify which is manned or unmanned. It opens up the world to everything floating, not necessarily a tanker.”