Planet Labs Secures Major Contract for Pacific Vessel Monitoring with NIWC

Planet Labs Secures Major Contract for Pacific Vessel Monitoring with NIWC
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2024

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leader in the provision of Earth observation data, has been awarded a significant contract by the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, underscoring the company'growng role in maritime surveillance and security. This contract, valued in the 'seven-figure range', aims to bolster vessel detection and monitoring across pivotal regions of the Pacific Ocean, marking a notable advancement in maritime situational awareness capabilities.

At the heart of this project is the integration of Planet's unparalleled daily, global PlanetScope data alongside the high-resolution insights offered by its SkySat data. These resources will be incorporated into the Department of Transportation's SeaVision platform, a sophisticated web-based tool designed to enhance maritime situational awareness. The integration of these datasets promises to offer an unprecedented comprehensive view of maritime activities over vast oceanic areas, facilitating a deeper understanding of marine environments and human activities therein.

Adding a layer of technological sophistication to this endeavor is SynMax, a long-standing partner of Planet, renowned for its advanced analytics technology. SynMax will employ its vessel detection analytics over the integrated Planet data, leveraging a subset of its Theia technology tailored to meet the specific requirements of the NIWC Pacific project.

This collaboration brings forward a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) enhancement capable of detecting maritime events at both strategic and tactical levels. Such capabilities are essential for identifying and addressing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, illicit ship-to-ship transfers, and instances of vessel spoofing, thereby contributing to maritime security and regulatory compliance.

The seamless fusion of electro-optical imagery-derived vessel detections with high-resolution tasked imagery into the SeaVision platform is set to revolutionize maritime domain awareness in the region. By providing unclassified data that can validate alternative datasets, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) positions, this project fosters an environment of shared understanding and collaboration among SeaVision users.

Jon Powers, Planet Federal's General Manager, expressed enthusiasm about the project, highlighting Planet's unique capability to provide broad area imagery collection of both land and ocean areas in the Indo-Pacific region. "NIWC Pacific continually pushes the bounds of innovating and advancing unmatched and disruptive technology in support of their operations," said Powers. This initiative represents a significant milestone in leveraging commercial satellite data and analytics to support maritime insights and the broader SeaVision mission, demonstrating the potential of public-private partnerships in enhancing national and global maritime security frameworks.