Русский
Russia’s fishing industry has discontinued the use of the UK’s Inmarsat satellite terminals to track its fishing vessels. Instead, it has switched to using exclusively Russian orbital constellations (Gonets, Yamal and Express) since January 1 to transmit vessel location data to the industry monitoring system (IMS), the Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) has stated. The move follows an order from the Russian Agriculture Ministry.
Rosrybolovstvo stated that “Import substitution of foreign terminals allows for minimizing the risks of vessels being disconnected from the Inmarsat satellite network, ensuring uninterrupted monitoring of their activities. In December 2025, we assessed the comparative reliability of the Russian satellite system Gonets and the UK’s Inmarsat in transmitting monitoring data to the IMS. The stability of Gonets terminals on fishing fleet vessels in 2025 was more than twice as high as the similar indicators of Inmarsat’s shipboard equipment. The use of the Gonets system also significantly saves shipowners’ funds on the transmission of communication traffic.”
Rosrybolovstvo said that the industry began transitioning to domestic satellite systems in May 2024. The new procedure for equipping vessels with technical control systems applies to vessels with a gross tonnage of over 80 tonnes and a main engine power of over 55 kW. Analysts believe that Inmarsat also provided the Russian shipping data to the British military who used it to approach Russian shipping in international waters and may also have shared the intelligence with the Ukrainian Navy. The moves underline the continuing moves by Russia to cease collaboration with the West and to provide domestic solutions to its needs.
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