January 27, 2026
Six Essential Takeaways from the 2026 U.S. National Defense Strategy for Maritime Leaders
Windward’s Vessel Screening delivers a 360° view of vessel risk by combining verified data, behavioral intelligence, and explainable decision logic – enabling confident decisions with fewer false positives.
Traditional vessel screening treats risk as a one-time, list-based check. In reality, maritime risk evolves through behavior, context, and shifting ownership and trade patterns. Windward’s Vessel Screening mirrors this reality, delivering clarity without unnecessary noise.
Windward establishes a trusted screening baseline with vessel identity validation, seven levels of ownership analysis, and screening against LSEG, D&B, and over 1,000 configurable lists.
Windward’s proprietary behavioral models continuously monitor vessel activity to detect deceptive shipping practices, including dark activity, AIS manipulation, suspicious ship-to-ship patterns, abnormal port behavior, and regime-linked movement.
Windward translates risk signals into clear go / no-go outcomes based on global regulations, organization-defined thresholds, and maritime expertise. Teams can determine when to proceed, escalate, or stop, consistently and defensibly, across vessels, counterparties, and trades.
Windward enriches screening outputs with curated OSINT and AI-generated summaries from MAI Expert™, providing clear explanations for why a vessel was flagged. Every risk comes with context, evidence, and traceability, reducing manual research and accelerating approvals, escalations, or rejections.
Detect vessels engaging in AIS and GNSS manipulation, dark activity, high-risk STS operations, and sequential behaviors linked to sanctions evasion – even when no single list match exists.
Expose complex and opaque ownership networks, beneficial owners, and control changes that signal elevated compliance, financial, or reputational risk.
Support cargo and trade due diligence by linking vessel behavior, port history, and ownership data to potential origin-related risk, strengthening sanctions compliance and regulatory alignment.
What is Windward’s Vessel Screening solution?
Windward’s Vessel Screening provides a complete, real-world view of vessel risk by combining verified vessel and ownership data with continuous behavioral monitoring and explainable intelligence. It helps teams make confident go/no-go decisions by reflecting how risk actually develops at sea, not just how it appears on paper.
How is Windward’s Vessel Screening different from traditional screening tools?
Traditional screening relies on static lists and point-in-time checks. Windward adds behavioral intelligence, ownership transparency, and contextual analysis, continuously monitoring vessels for deceptive activity and emerging risk so teams can identify exposure that static screening alone often misses.
What types of risks can Windward’s Vessel Screening identify?
Windward identifies behavioral and operational risk indicators that signal potential exposure, including sanctions-linked activity, deceptive shipping practices, opaque ownership and control structures, suspicious ship-to-ship behavior, AIS and GNSS manipulation, and regime-linked movement patterns. By surfacing these real-world risk signals early, Windward enables organizations to mitigate downstream regulatory, reputational, and financial risk with greater confidence.
How does Windward reduce false positives in vessel screening?
Windward reduces false positives by fusing multiple data sources into a single, resolved vessel and entity view. This includes behavioral intelligence, ownership and entity resolution, port and voyage history, and curated intelligence sources. Rather than triggering alerts on isolated signals, Windward evaluates patterns over time, contextual relevance, and Organization Defined Risk logic, ensuring screening outcomes are explainable, defensible, and aligned to each organization’s specific risk thresholds.
What is Organization Defined Risk (ODR) in vessel screening?
Organization Defined Risk allows teams to configure screening logic based on their own regulatory obligations, risk appetite, and internal policies. Windward applies these rules consistently across vessels, trades, and counterparties, producing clear and repeatable go/no-go outcomes.
How does Windward analyze vessel ownership and control?
Windward provides up to seven levels of ownership analysis, uncovering beneficial owners, control changes, and complex corporate structures. This helps teams identify hidden exposure tied to sanctioned, high-risk, or opaque entities that may not appear in surface-level registry checks.
Can Windward detect deceptive shipping practices even without a sanctions list match?
Yes. Windward’s behavioral models identify risk based on how vessels operate, not only whether they appear on a list. This includes dark activity, AIS manipulation, suspicious ship-to-ship patterns, abnormal port calls, and movement linked to sanctioned regimes, even when no formal designation exists.
How does MAI Expert™ support Vessel Screening decisions?
MAI Expert™ provides clear, explainable summaries of vessel risk by combining Windward data with relevant open-source context. It helps teams quickly understand why a vessel was flagged, what evidence supports the assessment, and whether escalation or rejection is warranted.
How often is vessel risk updated in Windward’s screening?
Vessel risk is re-evaluated continuously, with Windward’s behavioral and risk models running daily across the global fleet. As new behavioral signals, ownership changes, port activity, and intelligence inputs emerge, screening assessments are refreshed to reflect current operational reality rather than static, point-in-time checks.
Who typically uses Windward’s Vessel Screening solution?
Windward’s vessel screening is used by compliance teams, chartering desks, traders, shipowners, financial institutions, insurers, and government agencies that need reliable, explainable risk decisions across vessels, counterparties, and trades.
