Second Amber Maritime Domain Awareness Cubesat to Be Launched

Horizon Technologies will be launching its Amber-2 CubeSat satellite in 2021, in conjunction with the company’s partner AAC-Clyde Space. AMBER is Horizon Technologies’ CubeSat constellation that provides Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Data As A Service (DAAS), allowing users to locate and track vessels worldwide by picking up their electronic emissions. AMBER utilises an L-band SatPhone detection sensor package derived from the company’s FlyingFish SIGINT system, which is flown on both manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) aircraft and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).

John Beckner, Horizon Technologies CEO, commented: “In our space business segment, we have started planning our Amber-2 launch, and are in negotiations with our partner AAC-Clyde Space for the launch scheduled for 2021. Amber-2 will provide our customers with lower latency and will have additional capabilities (which result in an expanded dataset) to include GNSS Jamming/Spoofing geolocation as requested by a number of our government customers. Despite the pandemic, Horizon Technologies is still on schedule with Amber though this could change at any time. Amber is a Public/Private partnership with the UK Government to provide CubeSat-driven Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) data to our UK and worldwide government end-users.”

Horizon Technologies has also recently been awarded a £500+K order for an undisclosed quantity of FlyingFish SIGINT systems from a Sub-Saharan African country. The units are to be delivered as soon as possible under a UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement).

Beckner added: “Thanks to our COVID-19 preparations which started earlier this year, and most importantly, the resilience of our UK-based supply chain in these difficult times, we will be able to deliver these new FlyingFish systems on time.”