Russian state-owned shipbuilder United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) will equip new fishing vessels under construction at its various facilities with domestic satellite terminals as technical control means (TCMs).
The move came following an order from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture that called for fishing vessel operators to cease their reliance on British Inmarsat satellite terminals and to instead transition to domestic satellite terminals as TCMs.
USC will equip 135 vessels with the domestic terminals connected to the Gonets satellite system, which was developed by Russian space agency Roscosmos. These vessels are under various stages of construction and are scheduled to be delivered to their respective owners in the second half of 2026.
Foreign-made terminals that have been used as TCMs on Russian fishing vessels of more than 80 GT and with main engine outputs of over 55 kW were already replaced in the 18 months since May 13, 2024. No operational Russian fishing vessels that meet those two conditions are currently equipped with foreign-made terminals.
The transition to the Gonets system was done to ensure Russian stakeholders will continue to be able to monitor their vessels' activities without the risk of being disconnected from an existing satellite network.
The Russian Federal Agency for Fishery had earlier conducted an assessment of the reliability of the Inmarsat and Gonets systems. The assessment showed that Gonets offered significantly greater stability in addition to ensuring lower communication transmission costs for vessel owners.