Abstract: Today’s fast technological advancement in electronics and signal processing methods makes electronic systems, including sonars, obsolete very quickly. The Polish Navy seems to be particularly affected as its ships were built in the 1970s and 1980s. Researchers at the Gdansk University of Technology have developed a methodology for modernising Navy sonars which involves the use of new electronic sub-systems and modern, bespoke methods of digital signal processing. Thanks to that, the existing large and expensive ultrasonic transducers and their systems for deployment and stabilisation remain unchanged. Between 2001 and 2013 this methodology was used by the Gdansk University of Technology to modernise 26 sonars of different types for the Polish Navy. The projects have significantly improved the technical and utility parameters of the sonars, while keeping the expenditure at about 20% of the value of new equipment.