Cohort plc

Cohort plc is a holding company that buys defence electronics businesses and then largely leaves them alone. Seven operating companies sit under it, each with its own brand, factory and order book, reported through two divisions: Communications and Intelligence, and Sensors and Effectors. The model has produced steady growth since the AIM listing in 2006. Revenue for the year to 30 April 2026 reached 306.4 million pounds, up 13 percent, with adjusted operating profit up 32 percent to 36.3 million pounds. Head office is a small team in Reading. The engineering sits in Portugal, Germany, Australia and several sites across England.

The Communications and Intelligence side covers four businesses. EID, based near Lisbon, builds naval and military communications, including the OceaNex family of integrated internal and external communication systems for warships. EM Solutions in Brisbane, bought in 2024 and the main driver of the division's step up in profit, makes stabilised maritime satellite communications terminals for navies and commercial operators. MASS works in electronic warfare operational support, managing threat libraries and mission data for air platforms, alongside secure digital services and training delivered largely to the UK Ministry of Defence. MCL sources, adapts and supports surveillance and electronic equipment for UK government customers who need kit integrated and sustained rather than designed from scratch.

Sensors and Effectors holds the three businesses that make things that see and things that shoot. Chess Dynamics supplies electro-optical tracking, surveillance and fire control, with the SeaEagle FCEO-D and SeaEagle FCRO naval fire control directors and the Hawkeye ground based air defence system among its current lines. ELAC SONAR in Kiel builds hull mounted sonar, underwater communications and hydrographic systems for submarines and surface ships. SEA, in Somerset, has spent recent years assembling the Krait Defence System, an anti submarine package scaled for smaller vessels that pairs the KraitArray thin line towed array with KraitSearch processing, the KraitShield acoustic decoy and the KraitStrike lightweight torpedo launcher. SEA also builds heavyweight torpedo launcher systems for Royal Navy frigates and, with Chess Dynamics, the Ancilia trainable decoy launcher selected by the Ministry of Defence for surface ship self protection against missile threats.

What holds the group together is customer rather than technology. Most of the revenue comes from navies and defence ministries in the UK, Portugal, Germany, Australia and their export customers, and a large share is repeat sustainment work on equipment Cohort companies already have in service. That gives the group unusually high order cover going into each financial year. It also makes Cohort a useful supplier to watch for anyone buying naval sensors, since a single parent now spans sonar, satcom, fire control, electronic warfare support and soft kill effectors.