Maritime anti-piracy system, for the recognition of suspect watercrafts around one or more co-operating ships to be protected, comprising: - a shore-based control system (10,20,40), comprising: - one or more centres, geographically distributed, comprising shore sensors (11,12) for detecting watercrafts surveillance data; - a central station for collecting and elaborating watercrafts surveillance data; the shore-based control system (10,20,40) comprising a bidirectional communication network between said one or more centres and said central station, in such a way that the central station be able to send commands to said shore-based sensors; - a communication system between said one or more centres and said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, the anti-piracy system being characterised in that it comprises: - one or more devices, mounted on board of corresponding said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, for maritime surveillance data extraction from maritime surveillance sensors (12',11'), which are mounted on board of corresponding said one or more co-operating ships to be protected and are suitable to watch over the space around said one or more co-operating ships, said one or more devices for data extraction being suitable to send said maritime surveillance data to at least one of said one or more centres through said communication system; - an identification and authentication system (13,70) of said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, which functions through said communication system and is shared among said one or more centres and each of said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, wherein said central station for collecting and elaborating data elaborates the data coming from said one or more centres, and therefore also from said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, and launches the relevant alarms in the case of recognition of suspected watercrafts. - a shore-based control system (10,20,40), comprising: - one or more centres, geographically distributed, comprising shore sensors (11,12) for detecting watercrafts surveillance data; - a central station for collecting and elaborating watercrafts surveillance data; the shore-based control system (10,20,40) comprising a bidirectional communication network between said one or more centres and said central station, in such a way that the central station be able to send commands to said shore-based sensors; - one or more centres, geographically distributed, comprising shore sensors (11,12) for detecting watercrafts surveillance data; - a central station for collecting and elaborating watercrafts surveillance data; the shore-based control system (10,20,40) comprising a bidirectional communication network between said one or more centres and said central station, in such a way that the central station be able to send commands to said shore-based sensors; - a communication system between said one or more centres and said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, the anti-piracy system being characterised in that it comprises: - one or more devices, mounted on board of corresponding said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, for maritime surveillance data extraction from maritime surveillance sensors (12',11'), which are mounted on board of corresponding said one or more co-operating ships to be protected and are suitable to watch over the space around said one or more co-operating ships, said one or more devices for data extraction being suitable to send said maritime surveillance data to at least one of said one or more centres through said communication system; - an identification and authentication system (13,70) of said one or more co-operating ships to be protected, which functions through said communication system and is shared among said one or more centres and each of said one or more co-operating ships to be protected,