Abstract: The existing underwater noise source near-field location method usually assumes that the measurement plane is flat, which increases the difficulty of applying the underwater noise target test for cylindrical distribution. Simultaneously, the conventional near-field focused beam has a lower spatial resolution when used to locate an underwater noise source with cylindrical distribution. Moreover, the near-field underwater noise source location method based on the sound pressure array has a left and right side fuzzy problem. In order to solve these problems, by establishing the near-field measurement model of the noise source with cylindrical distribution as the measurement surface, and combining the unilateral directivity of the vector hydrophone and the high resolution characteristics of the MUSIC algorithm, a near-field and high resolution location method is proposed for cylindrical distribution based on vector sound pressure, and a computer simulation is carried out. The results show that the method can use a smaller array aperture to locate the underwater noise source, enabling it to be used to locate and recognize the noise sources of complex and large-scale cylindrical systems.