Maritime Visual Intelligence (MVI) detects every vessel in view and assigns it a unique visual ID based on its hull shape, structure, and distinctive features. Tied to the vessel itself rather than its broadcast identity, this ID remains consistent across locations, name changes, and AIS switch-offs.
MVI cross-checks visual IDs against AIS to expose discrepancies, delivering every sighting with imagery directly into Windward or through an intelligence feed, with configurable alerts tailored to your mission.
MVI delivers persistent visual intelligence, identifying vessels whether their AIS is active, manipulated or completely dark. It detects and tracks AIS-dark ships, recording their movements as dark transits. Go-fasts, inflatables and small craft that never transmit are even when satellites struggle to detect them. Large vessels broadcasting false names, flags or IMOs are checked against their physical appearance, with mismatches and changes across sightings flagged.
MVI detects small craft at up to 20 km and large vessels at ~50 km. Around the clock and with no operator.
Smuggling runs rely on small, fast boats with no AIS and a short exposure window. MVI detects them the moment they enter a camera’s view, alerts in ~10 seconds, and tracks the craft as it moves, so your teams have a position and a heading while the boat is still on the water.
Inflatables and small boats on migration routes transmit nothing and are too small for satellites to catch reliably. MVI cameras at departure corridors and landing points detect them at up to 20 km, day and night, and alert the moment a craft is in view, giving responders time to act.
Shadow fleet tankers go dark, switch names and broadcast identities that belong to other ships. MVI identifies each hull as it passes a chokepoint, compares the visual ID with the AIS record, and flags the mismatch. The sighting lands on the vessel’s track alongside ownership, behavior and risk.
Cables, pipelines and platforms often sit close to shore, within reach of vessels that loiter, drag anchor or approach without transmitting. MVI identifies every hull near them, including the unknown and the suspicious, and keeps a continuous visual record of which vessel was where, and when. When an incident occurs, the record already exists.
MVI is Windward’s ground-based visual intelligence layer, built on cameras deployed at chokepoints, corridors, strategic assets, and aboard vessels. Every vessel detection becomes structured data that fuses into the Windward platform alongside satellite sightings, behavior, risk, and ownership, so a visual sighting lands on the same vessel track as every other source.
A visual ID is a unique Windward-assigned identity derived from the hull itself, based on shape, structure, and distinctive features. Because Windward ties the ID to the physical vessel rather than what it broadcasts, it stays consistent across locations, name changes, and AIS switch-offs. Windward has fingerprinted more than 80,000 vessels by hull.
Satellites pass overhead on a revisit cycle and struggle with small, low-profile craft. Windward’s cameras watch continuously from fixed positions, detecting small craft at up to 20 km and large vessels at around 50 km, day and night. The two are complementary, as satellites deliver wide-area coverage, and MVI delivers persistence where the asset or chokepoint sits.
Windward alerts roughly 10 seconds from detection and identifies a vessel by name and IMO in under two minutes. Watch is continuous, day and night, with no operator required. Alerts are configured around your own monitoring criteria rather than a fixed threshold.
Small craft, inflatables, and go-fasts frequently carry no transponder at all, which makes them invisible to AIS monitoring and difficult for satellites to catch. Windward’s cameras detect them visually at up to 20 km regardless of what they broadcast. At one Windward site in the Strait of Gibraltar, 98% of small craft detected were not broadcasting AIS in September 2026.
A vessel broadcasting a false name, flag, or IMO still has the hull it has always had. Windward compares each visual ID against the AIS record as the vessel passes. A match is normal traffic, no match is a dark transit, and the wrong identity is a mismatch, flagged on the vessel’s track with the imagery attached.
Yes. Because the visual ID persists across sightings, Windward registers physical changes rather than losing the vessel to them. Painted-over names, new paint schemes, and added deck equipment appear as changes to a known hull, which is itself an indicator when it coincides with a name or flag change.
Smuggling runs rely on small, fast boats with no AIS and a short exposure window. Windward detects them the moment they enter a camera’s view, alerts in around 10 seconds, and tracks the craft as it moves, so teams have a position and a heading while the boat is still on the water.
Inflatables and small boats on migration routes transmit nothing and are too small for satellites to catch reliably. Windward cameras at departure corridors and landing points detect them at up to 20 km, day and night, and alert the moment a craft is in view, giving responders time to act.
Shadow fleet tankers go dark, switch names, and broadcast identities belonging to other ships. Windward identifies each hull as it passes a chokepoint, compares the visual ID against the AIS record, and flags the mismatch. The sighting lands on the vessel’s track alongside ownership, behavior, and risk history.
Cables, pipelines, and platforms often sit close to shore, within reach of vessels that loiter, drag anchor, or approach without transmitting. Windward identifies every hull near them, including the unknown and the suspicious, and keeps a continuous visual record of which vessel was where and when. When an incident occurs, the record already exists.
MVI is a source like any other in Windward’s all-source architecture. Every sighting resolves against the same vessel identity, lands on the same timeline, and is weighted by the same confidence logic as AIS, satellite imagery, RF, and digital presence signals. A visual confirmation does not sit in a separate system waiting to be reconciled.
No. Windward offers three routes: access the global MVI data layer through the platform or via API into your own systems, request a tailored deployment where Windward surveys, installs, and operates a site for you, or host a site at your own facility as a partner and extend the network’s coverage. There is no hardware to buy, install, or maintain.
