From January 1, 2026, the Russian fishing industry switched to domestic orbital constellations for transmitting data on the location of fishing vessels. This was reported by the press service of the "Satellite System \"Gonets\"" company (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation).
According to the order of the Ministry of Agriculture, from January 1, 2026, the use of British Inmarsat satellite stations on ships as technical control equipment (TCE) will be terminated. The new procedure will apply to vessels with a gross tonnage of more than 80 tons and a main engine power of more than 55 kW. Now, enterprises in the industry will use the Russian satellite constellations Gonets, Yamal, and Express.
The head of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Center for Fisheries Monitoring and Communications System" (part of Rosrybolovstvo), Alexander Mikhailov, noted that in December 2025, an assessment was made of the reliability of the Russian Gonets satellite system and the British Inmarsat. The results showed that in 2025, the stability of the Gonets stations on fishing vessels exceeded the similar indicators of Inmarsat equipment by more than two times.
Compared to the foreign satellite network, the use of the Gonets system also significantly saves shipowners' money on the transmission of communication traffic.
Import substitution of satellite constellations in the fishing industry will minimize the risks of disconnecting vessels from foreign satellites and strengthen Russia's technological sovereignty.
Earlier www1.ru reported when the production of Zorkiy satellites, an analogue of the Starlink system, will begin.