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elevated · 55 Contested sea lanes

South China Sea

Spratly / Scarborough

Why it matters: Grey-zone maritime-militia and coast-guard confrontations along key trade routes.

Local map · live AIS

under way slow stationary

Fused signal timeline · 21 days

🚢 0 now · 0 under way 💨 22.2kt · moderate transit favourable
07-10 07-03 06-26 06-19 NOW

No dated open-source events in the last 21 days for this box.

Daily satellite snapshot of South China Sea
Daily satellite context NASA GIBS · VIIRS/NOAA-20 true color · 2026-07-09 Daily true-color snapshot (2026-07-09) — context only; too coarse to resolve individual vessels. Open in NASA Worldview ↗

Assessment

South China Sea is showing a watch-level posture above its baseline; open-source coverage is holding steady. Latest reporting (2026-05-23): “Chinese ship leaves after tense standoff near Taiwan-controlled islands” — reuters.com. Metocean: 22.2 kt wind, 2.42 m seas — transit favourable.

What changed

  • Most recent reporting dated 2026-05-23.
  • Conditions: 22.2 kt / Bft 6, seas moderate — favourable for transit.
  • No other material change in monitored feeds.

Live AIS snapshot

90s window
0
in box
0
under way
0
stationary
0
slow/loiter

Live positions via AISStream.io at build time. Cross-run gap/dark-ship detection is the next iteration.

Metocean conditions

Wind22.2 kt
Gusts28.8 kt
Beaufort6
Wave ht2.42 m
Swell0.76 m
Visibility11.9 km
Sea statemoderate
Transit favourable

Open-Meteo, box centroid, at build time.

Dated open-source reporting

Updated 10 Jul 2026, 20:15 UTC · narrator: rule-based · bbox [111, 8, 118.5, 12.5]