A Hampshire-based maker of underwater positioning, navigation, communication and monitoring equipment, founded in 1971 by engineer John Partridge.
Sonardyne designs and builds technology that lets people find their way, measure, detect and talk underwater. Its products include acoustic positioning systems that track divers, ships, robots and tools on the seabed, navigation equipment that combines sound with motion sensors, underwater modems for sending data, and long-term monitoring systems for the seabed. Customers are mostly in offshore energy, ocean science and maritime defence, and in recent years the company has added work on offshore wind and carbon capture and storage. Because the ocean blocks radio and GPS, much of its work relies on sound.
The company was founded in 1971 by John Partridge, an engineer who started it from a spare bedroom. As a teenager he built his own scuba gear from war-surplus parts, and later studied mechanical engineering at the University of Bristol. His aim was to use acoustics to make work under the water safer and more efficient. Sonardyne today says it wants to "make the impossible possible" through sustainable maritime innovation, and that its people are its greatest asset. It reports reaching carbon neutrality across its UK facilities by the end of its 2023 financial year, two years ahead of its own target.
Sonardyne's global headquarters, Ocean House, is a purpose-built research, manufacturing and office site at Blackbushe in Hampshire, which it moved into in the 1990s. It also has a regional hub in Aberdeen and a trials and training facility in Plymouth, along with sales and service centres overseas, including Houston and Singapore. It describes itself as vertically integrated, meaning engineering, manufacturing, servicing and support are done in-house with the help of trusted suppliers. Sonardyne is now part of Kraken Robotics, alongside companies such as EIVA, Forcys, Voyis and Chelsea Technologies. A Sunday Times table lists it in its 2026 100 Tech ranking.
Its history shows a company that likes firsts. Sonardyne's technology helped survey Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, from 1975 until it was raised in 1982, supported the world's first tension leg platform in 1984, and after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami it developed an early-warning system for coastal protection. It has won four Queen's Awards, the latest in 2021 for seabed monitoring technology. Its own pages describe a culture of technical curiosity and customer focus, with a stated commitment to emerging technologies. These are the company's own claims.
People at Sonardyne work as acoustic, electronics, software and mechanical engineers, as production and test technicians, as field service and survey engineers who go to sea with the equipment, and in sales, project management, finance and support. It also operates its own vessel charter, training and servicing services, so there are practical, hands-on roles as well as design ones.
Website: www.sonardyne.com
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