Harris Corp. launches real-time ship tracking

Harris Corp. announced Monday its first four maritime vessel tracking receivers are operational.

The company said the operational receivers are the beginning “of the only global, persistent, real-time Automatic Identification System ship-tracking capability.”

Harris, headquartered in Melbourne, is one of Brevard County’s largest employers. It works with the Department of Defense, the FAA and other government agencies, as well as holding contracts with numerous overseas customers.

Bill Gattle, president of the company’s Space and Intelligence Systems said 90 percent of the world’s trade is transported over the oceans, making “maritime domain awareness critically important for commerce and transportation.”

“This is the first global, persistent, real-time system for the industry, enabling customers to accurately track cargo, tanker, passenger and fishing vessels outfitted with existing AIS transceivers,” Gattle said in a statement.

Harris is showcasing its AIS technology at the GEOINT 2017 Symposium this week in San Antonio, Texas.

Launched in January via four Iridium NEXT satellites, the maritime-tracking hosted payloads are tracking 250,000 ships and providing data to government and commercial customers. Once the satellite constellation fully operational next year, it is will offer a continuous revisit rate and improved vessel detection and downlinking of AIS information, with an average latency of less than one minute — the fastest, most accurate vessel information available.

Harris owns and operates the AIS payloads and is the exclusive provider of exactEarth AIS products and services to the U.S. government. Harris is partnered with exactEarth, which performs the ground-based data processing and continues to service all other global markets.