Horizon Technologies Receives BlackFish™ Order for a NATO Fixed-Wing Maritime Surveillance Platform
Horizon Technologies is pleased to announce that it has received an order from a NATO Coast Guard for its BlackFish™ L-band airborne SIGINT system. The system will be integrated onto a new fixed-wing maritime surveillance aircraft as part of a multi-year programme running through 2027. The total order is valued at approximately £2 Million.
BlackFish™ is Horizon’s latest passive L-band intelligence system designed for fixed-wing and rotary-wing airborne platforms. For maritime agencies and operators, BlackFish™ provides enhanced situational awareness to support missions such as combating smuggling, illegal fishing, maritime trafficking, “dark vessel” detection, and other illicit activity.
This award represents a significant milestone for Horizon Technologies as it expands its global installed base, and continues to deliver advanced L-band passive intelligence capabilities to governments worldwide.
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Introducing BlackFishNet: A New Hybrid Strategic L-Band Collection Architecture
In parallel with this order, Horizon Technologies is pleased to introduce BlackFishNet, a hybrid terrestrial + space L-band monitoring architecture designed for governments that have lost some monitoring capabilities following the transition to Thuraya T4-NGS. In addition to Thuraya, BlackFishNet monitors ISatPro, Iridium and GlobalStar traffic.
BlackFishNet integrates:
• A distributed network of BlackFish™ terrestrial and airborne sensors, and
• Uplink collection from Horizon’s Amber™ L-band CubeSats, with Amber-2 launching in mid-2026.
This combined architecture delivers a unique, scalable, and future-proof L-band strategic monitoring capability. Horizon will be the only provider offering an integrated terrestrial + space solution focused on persistent L-band uplink collection.
BlackFishNet is a standalone offering and is not connected to the newly awarded airborne programme.
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“This BlackFish™ order is an important milestone for Horizon Technologies with a new NATO customer and a new platform. It underscores the growing global demand for passive L-band intelligence systems,” said John Beckner, CEO of Horizon Technologies. “At the same time, many governments are now facing a significant capability issue following the introduction of the Thuraya T4-NGS system. BlackFishNet, combined with our upcoming Amber™ satellite launches, provides a unique hybrid architecture to fill that gap.”
