Shipping volume has tripled since 1990. AIS made identity knowable, and fakeable. The old MDA model can't keep up. New analysis from Second Line of Defense names Windward among the firms fusing commercial data to catch what one sensor alone would miss. Get the full story: okt.to/Oaq5dr

Iran-linked crude cargoes go dark near the Gulf, but Michelle Wiese Bockmann (@Michellewb_) says they resurface on AIS once they reach the Malacca Strait. Watch the full briefing covering the Hormuz closure and the growing threat to Bab el-Mandeb, on demand: okt.to/PZw6Db

Great panel yesterday at the 2026 Intel Summit: VADM (Ret.) Robert Sharp joined Dr. GP Sandhoo on "Cybersecurity in the Age of Agentic AI," moderated by Rebecca King. The conversation dug into how data fusion and all-source intelligence are keeping pace with an increasingly complex threat environment. #POCIntel2026

VLCC freight rates out of the Gulf reached $1.1 million a day, Michelle Wiese Bockmann (@Michellewb_) explains, versus the usual 1–3% of cargo value. Watch the full briefing covering the Hormuz closure and the growing threat to Bab el-Mandeb, on demand: okt.to/3C9yGw

NEW! Our Counter-Narcotics Dashboard is live. Dark activity, MMSI changes, and more — smuggling behavior patterns tracked monthly. View the Dashboard: okt.to/S1APLH

The EU now bans refined products made from Russian crude in third countries and has started naming the refineries and terminals involved. Join Windward's live masterclass for how to track Russian crude through the refinery to the product tanker loading downstream. Tuesday, September 29 · 1:00 PM BST / 8:00 AM EDT / 8:00 PM SGT okt.to/YIwuQD

For 41 days, a zombie vessel out of Hodeidah has been spoofing its position over the approaches of the AAE-1, SeaMeWe-5 and IEX cables off Djibouti. The vessel uses the identity of a container ship reported dead since 2020. It surfaced on AIS on 24 Jul leaving the Houthi-held port and called there twice more before its track settled into a loop off Djibouti on 14 Aug. Since then it has made no port calls, done no cargo work and logged 20+ AIS gaps, the longest 40.5 hours on 8–10 Sep. Iran has weighed attacks on Gulf undersea cables, and the Houthis, who now hold Mocha and islands near Bab el-Mandeb, have reportedly threatened the region's cables before. The vessel's behavior has no clear commercial explanation.

Holding Perim Island gives Houthi forces a clear military edge at the narrowest point of Bab el-Mandeb, says Matthew Mueller, Windward's U.S. MIOC Team Lead. Watch the full briefing covering the Hormuz closure and the growing threat to Bab el-Mandeb, on demand: okt.to/ltvIF4

Windward's MIOC tracked a 94 km oil slick along Musandam Peninsula's east coast in a SAR image from 22 September, running from off Dibba to the peninsula's northern tip, about 10 km offshore. Weak tidal currents are pushing it mostly north into the Strait of Hormuz, but 10–15% is modeled to reach the eastern Musandam coast by 25 September, putting the Lima Rock and Ras Musandam dive reefs, the Ras Dillah reef at Khor Habalayn, and Lima village's fishing harbour in its path. Oil exposure can kill or stunt coral, cutting into the dive trade both sites depend on, and it typically shuts down fishing once it fouls boats and nets. About 70 villages on this coast draw drinking water from floating desalination units, and those intakes usually have to shut when oil gets close.

Forty days at sea. No cargo loaded, none discharged, no other vessel met. From 9 Aug to 17 Sep 2026, a Hong Kong-flagged, Chinese-owned oil/chemical tanker sat in the north-central Red Sea between Safaga and Al Wajh. It drifted and anchored inside a 65 x 55nm area that straddles the Egypt–Saudi EEZ line and sits directly over the AAE-1, Saudi Vision, IEX and SeaMeWe-5 subsea cables. Single stops ran as long as 64 and 54 hours. The day it left, it went dark. It reappeared 5.5 days later, 55nm south-southeast in the Saudi EEZ. Its AIS destination reads "CHINESE OWNER & CREW," and it is assessed as moderate IUU support fleet risk. A tanker earns money by moving cargo. This one spent six weeks parked over cable infrastructure, then switched off AIS. Long drifting and anchoring periods over cables are exactly how anchor-drag damage happens, as the September 2025 cable cuts near Jeddah showed. Source on the 2025 cable cuts: okt.to/c1KRx0

Happening today: catch VADM (Ret.) Robert Sharp, Windward's Chief Maritime Intelligence Officer, on "Cybersecurity in the Age of Agentic AI" at the 2026 Intel Summit, 1:20 PM ET. Stop by Booth 9 to see our all-source intelligence in action. #POCIntel2026

This year's theme for World Maritime Day is "From Policy to Practice, Powering Maritime Excellence." Turning data into decisive action, so policy holds up at sea, is the mission we were built for. Fair winds and following seas, from all of us at Windward. #WorldMaritimeDay #MaritimePolicyToPractice

Drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's bypass pipeline this month pushed more crude back through the Strait of Hormuz, straining an already tight tanker fleet. The cost of loading an oil supertanker in the Gulf and transiting the strait reached a record cost of over $1 million a day. That's $26 a barrel, roughly a quarter of the crude’s value based on the current market price. Windward cited in @WSJ. wsj.com/logistics-report/tan…

The 2026 Intel Summit brings together leaders across the community to talk about how technology is transforming intelligence operations. VADM (Ret.) Robert (Bob) Sharp, Windward's Chief Maritime Intelligence Officer, joins "Cybersecurity in the Age of Agentic AI," Sept 24, 1:20 PM ET. Don't miss the panel. #POCIntel2026

Windward's MIOC tracked a Saint Kitts-flagged cargo ship loiter 108 hours near Poland's B8 platform, Sept 13–18, before resuming course to St. Petersburg. First loiter in 4 documented EEZ crossings. No port call, no STS, no declared reason, from a vessel with six identity changes since 2020. During the same week, Poland recovered a suspected Russian drone from the Baltic, and the EU/Finland ran live infrastructure-sabotage drills.

What one sensor misses, another catches. Windward’s all-source operational intelligence fuses every sensor into one complete, continuous, and manipulation-resistant intelligence picture. See how it works: okt.to/nsEkwv

War-risk premiums for Strait of Hormuz transits: ~0.25% of hull value pre-conflict, now 3-10%. P&I clubs also raised the Excess War Risk sub-limit for Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus waters from $100M to $125M for 2026/27. okt.to/qPO7a1

VLCC spot rates to transit Hormuz and load inside the Middle East Gulf were assessed at just over $1 million per day this week, equivalent to approximately $26 per barrel, or 25% of the price of a barrel of crude at $100. The surge follows a week where Houthi forces seized Perim Island, effectively completing their hold on Bab el-Mandeb, and struck Saudi Arabia's Petroline pipeline, its main workaround for Hormuz. Full story and other updates: okt.to/RsSFh8

🇨🇳 South Korea detained two Chinese fishing vessels off Baengnyeong Island. Windward data shows the fishing grounds around the island keep drawing Chinese vessels regardless. Windward all-source operational intelligence, 0–30 NM from the island, August 1 – September 18: → Five Chinese-flagged fishing vessels detected conducting dark activity. → Two showed AIS tracks consistent with fishing inside North Korea's EEZ, a potential UN sanctions violation. Foreign vessels are barred from fishing in these waters. The low count likely reflects deliberate AIS suppression: the vessels that surface are a sample, not the fleet.

You might have seen the 1980s trend filling your feed this week. Here's our take on it. In 1980, tracking a tanker meant a radio check-in, a paper plot, and however long it took to rewind a mixtape before the next update. Windward fuses AIS, SAR, EO, RF, and vessel behavior into a single all-source operational picture, decision-ready and updated when and where you need it.