Civilian Satellites Can Track Aircraft Carriers (But It Is Not Easy)

This satellite image shows the 105,000-ton aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln at sea. Even low-resolution imagery can prove adequate for finding a carrier at sea. (Location and date removed) Satellite image from Sentinel Hub, insert US Navy

Forbes: The Realities of Tracking Aircraft Carriers With Civilian Satellites

We recently showed how open-source intelligence analysts using freely available commercial satellite imagery can pinpoint a Chinese aircraft carrier hundred of miles out to sea. It wasn’t easy, but it worked. This applies to U.S. navy aircraft carriers also, but it is not always straightforward.

Back in the 1950s when the U.S. Navy conceived its super-carriers, commercial imaging satellites did not exist. Once out to sea, only sophisticated adversaries could track the ship’s location. But today commercial satellite imagery has become commonplace, and at least in some cases they can find a carrier at sea.

Using this, a small country or non-state actor (or even a journalist!), can try to keep tabs on warships. In a crisis situation this intelligence could be detrimental to the Navy. It’s a radically different situation from when U.S. carriers deployed for Operation Desert Storm in 1991, or the Balkans in 1995.

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WNU Editor: Civilian satellite imagery has improved significantly in the past 20 years. Here is an easy prediction. I am sure this technology is going to improved even more so in the next decade or two.