Inmarsat Maritime is launching a new product to provide new insights as well as direct access to the comprehensive analysis of risks shaping global shipping. Inmarsat Maritime, now a Viasat company, is launching a new Maritime Safety Data Hub aiming to offer greater visibility into the conditions influencing maritime risk. Inmarsat Maritime announced the launch, Sept. 1.
The system draws on a dataset combining three years of Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) data, claiming an industry-first analysis of 106,975 maritime safety broadcasts transmitted in 2025. The platform is built to identify patterns, trends, and the evolving impact of environmental hazards, operational pressures, and geopolitical instability on safety at sea.
Inmarsat’s findings, carried out in partnership with the data analysts at supply chain consultancy SeaFocus, could be seen as significant as shipping faces increasing exposure to extreme weather, longer voyages, evolving trade routes, and growing operational complexity. According to Inmarsat, the analysis demonstrates a clear temporal relationship between meteorological hazards and periods of elevated operational risk.
In 2025, continued disruption in the Red Sea, sanctions affecting global tanker operations, and heightened tensions around the Persian Gulf and Black Sea altered traditional shipping routes and increased operational complexity. Electronic interference also emerged as a significant threat to commercial shipping, as GPS spoofing, signal jamming, and other navigational disruptions increased in strategically important trade corridors – particularly in the Middle East.
“By bringing weather information together with distress data, the Inmarsat Maritime Safety Data Hub introduces a powerful new layer of maritime intelligence. The unique insights made available through this research will help the industry better understand the factors shaping maritime safety – and move from simply reacting to incidents to exploring the conditions, patterns, and emerging risks that surround them,” John Dodd, Director of Maritime Safety, Inmarsat Maritime, said in a statement.
