Things happen at sea between the passes.
Satellites take snapshots. Transponders can be switched off. Shore radar stops at the horizon. I design and build the layer that keeps watch in between: sensors on the coast, on ships and on offshore installations, fused into one picture, with the track handed to whoever has to act.
Europe sees its waters in snapshots, not as a watch.
Satellites revisit
Radar satellites come round a few times a day at best. A ship can meet, transfer cargo and move on between passes.
Transponders lie
AIS is easy to switch off or spoof. The shadow fleet does both, routinely.
Radar stops at the horizon
Coastal radar sees the approaches, not the sea beyond, and not the platforms and wind farms 100 miles out.
Hulls can’t be everywhere
There are too few patrol ships and aircraft for the length of coast and seabed Europe now has to protect.
The result: small boats, dark tankers and vessels loitering over cables are usually found after the event, not during it.
Four layers. One picture. One handover.
Sentry towers on land, and out at sea
Radar and day/night cameras on masts at beaches, headlands, ports and narrows. The same sensors belong on oil and gas platforms, wind turbines and floating installations in the North Sea, where the infrastructure actually is.
Ships as sensors: the merchant mesh
AI vision cameras are already fitted to working ships for collision avoidance (Orca AI’s is one). Their detections of dark and small craft can feed the same picture, from inside the shipping lanes.
Uncrewed aircraft, surface drones and seabed sensors
Persistent cover over wind farms, cable routes and pipelines, where the next attack is most likely to be quiet.
The mariner on the bridge
A camera sees a hull. A mariner sees the deck. Structured seafarer reporting adds what sensors miss.
Every port, platform and narrows from the Channel to the Barents Sea.
The south is about small boats and the busiest strait in the world. The north is about the routes into the Atlantic, the Baltic and the Arctic, the oil, gas and wind fields, and the cables that join Britain to Norway and the continent. Every major port and narrows is a camera site waiting to be connected. Turn the layers on and off, and tap a point.
Shadow fleet markers are publicly reported incidents (Windward’s published analysis, governments and the press), each with its source; Windward’s own vessel data is a paid service and is not shown. Positions are approximate. Cable and pipeline routes are simplified. Camera sites are proposals, not existing installations.
Maritime ISR is national security, not a niche.
Small boats
The Channel crossings are the most visible test of whether the UK can see its own coast in time.
The shadow fleet
Dark tankers through the Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic fund Russia’s war and carry uninsured risk past European coasts.
Platforms, cables and pipelines
After Nord Stream, a 2026 court ruling on war exclusions has left operators largely self-insuring the seabed. Prevention and evidence are now worth paying for.
The High North
Russia’s Northern Fleet heads for the Atlantic through the waters north of Scotland. As the Arctic opens, the northern sea routes get busier.
Europe’s front doors
Every major port already has cameras. Almost none of them feed a shared maritime picture. Connecting them is cheaper than any new hull.
The market leader agrees
In November 2026 Windward bought Azimut.ai, whose software turns port, coast and ship cameras into vessel tracks. Satellites alone are no longer enough.
I’ve been building and writing this. The market has been moving the same way.
Amber is my work and my writing. Blue is the market. Every date can be checked, and every article opens.
Based in Nairn. In London or on the continent within hours.
My family has owned and managed ships for over 130 years; I am a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights. I trained at sea, audited armed-guard companies, and have spent the last three years designing how Europe’s seas should be watched.
A northern hub for the UK and Europe.
Ten minutes from Inverness Airport and two hours from Aberdeen, with direct flights to London, Belfast, Dublin, Orkney, Shetland, Bergen, Stavanger, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Half an hour from RAF Lossiemouth, home of the UK’s maritime patrol aircraft.
Built for the field
Sensors get installed and operators get trained on headlands, quaysides and platforms, in weather. That is where I am at home.
Deep-sea deck cadet
A container ship on the Australia–Asia run, and an MOD ro-ro with Royal Navy crew and force protection aboard.
Instructor and coach
Ski, canoe and kayak instructor; qualified personal trainer; crew health coaching at ZS Wellness; a mentoring programme for seafarers moving ashore.
Teaching under pressure
Taught beginners in cold, wet and exposed conditions, and audited how armed-guard teams are trained to ISO 28007.
Outdoors, every day
Outdoor leader with Wild Things in Findhorn, founder of N57’s run and ride club, and training daily in all weather.
The network that comes with me
Royal Navy and MOD
Red Sea work taken up to the then Second Sea Lord; the Rafnar interceptor to the Royal Navy and Marine Scotland; a coastal ISR service conceived for the Home Office requirement.
Shipowners and managers
My family has owned and managed ships for over 130 years. Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
P&I and loss prevention
Worked with the loss-prevention teams at Thomas Miller UK P&I and NorthStandard.
Private maritime security
Audited armed-guard companies to ISO 28007 and SAMI standards; sat in SCEG meetings; Red Sea R&D with security companies.
London International Shipping Week
N57, the maritime club I founded, is on the official LISW 2027 programme and at Crew Connect.
Industry and legal
Close working relationships with former Babcock strategy leadership and with lawyers working on maritime security and preparedness; at the table with the leadership of the International Chamber of Shipping.