Sensitive Guided Stand-off Cruise Missile
In late 2011, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, TUBITAK, announced that its scientists would soon finish a missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers (925 miles) and in 2014 another with a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles). Another missile with an 800-kilometer range was ready for precision tests. As of 2012, Turkey's national missile was planned to have a 2,500 km range by 2014. The missile is named "Sensitive Guided Stand-off Cruise Missile." The missile was produced in line with the needs of Turkish Air Forces to hit targets behind enemy lines without entering the range of enemy defense systems to a great accuracy.
Late in 2013, defense procurement officials claimed that TUBITAK’s 800-kilometer-range missile had been successfully tested, hitting targets with precision over the Black Sea. They had been launched from aerial assets, which “constituted a landmark achievement in [Turkish] missile technology,” as one official put it. The 1,500-kilometer-range missile would now debut in 2014, however, not in 2013 as promised. The 2,500-kilometer-range missile would appear later as well, not in 2014. The longer ranges are achieved with an enlarged fuel tank.
Initially, the Stand off Missile (SOM) system had 3 different versions all with a range of 180 km. The National Cruise Missile was introduced in 2011 on an F-16 fighter jet in Izmir during Turkish Air Forces performances. Having spent 6 years on the project TUBITAK's Defense Industry Research and Development Institute increased the range to 300 km. The Institute will begin 500 km tests within 2012, and later on it will be taken up to 1500 km and by 2014 it will be boosted up to 2500 km.
SOM, which is Turkey’s first cruise missile, was exhibited for the first time between 04-06 June 2011 at 2nd Air Force Base located in Çigli, Izmir in scope of celebrating the 100th anniversary of Turkish Air Forces. The missile system is being developed as 3 variants in accordance with the requirements of Turkish Air Force and it is able to destroy the predefined targets with high accuracy without getting into the effective range of the enemy air defense systems. The missile has a range over 180 km and it has a specially designed body to avoid detection from air defense radars. It is able to follow the waypoints and terrain contours and make route corrections accordingly.
To aid Missile’s tightly coupled INS and GPS mid course guidance system, a Terrain Referenced Navigation (TRN) system has also been incorporated. Even if the GPS signal is jammed or interrupted, with the help of this system, the missile can get position updates using the terrain data preloaded to its computer. On its terminal phase, the missile matches the image from its imaging infrared (IIR) seeker with the one loaded during mission planning, hits the target with a few meters accuracy and destroys it with its high explosive warhead. The missile has been developed to be used with F-4E 2020 and F-16 Block 40 aircrafts of Turkish Air Force. In addition, the work related with the certification of the missile to F-35 aircraft has recently been started.
Defense Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE) is an affiliate of The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). The main function of TUBITAK SAGE (Defence Industries Research and Development Institute) is to perform research and development activities for defense systems including engineering and prototype production, starting with their fundamental research and conceptual design. Most of the projects are performed in coordination with related defense institutions.
A new product was added in 2018 to the domestic products developed by TÜBITAK SAGE and developed by the defense industry with its turbojet engine, which will be used in ROKETSAN's fleet of SOM. The contract signed between the Undersecretariat of Defense Industry and Kale Aviation includes the design, production, testing, technology demonstration, training and maintenance of the technical data package of the turbojet engine and motor subsystems to be used in the SOM mass production of Air Force Command. The project achieved significant gains in the reduction of external dependency on motor technologies.
A nationally made turbojet engine means lifting restrictions on the sale of missiles using this engine. Azerbaijan is strongly interested in the SOM missiles and is waiting for the Turkish-made turbojet engine to buy them.
Stand off Missile (SOM)
- Missile weight : ~ 1,300 lb. (600 kg)
- Warhead weight : 500 lb. (230 kg)
Typical Targets
- SAM sites
- Exposed aircraft
- Strategic assets
- C2 centers
- Aircraft hangars
- Shelters
Operational Characteristics
- Long Range (100 NM+)
- Low Detectability
- High Precision with GPS/INS/ATR/TRN
- High Agility
- Powerful Destructive Effect
- Resistance to Counter Measures / Clutter
- Target of Opportunity Capable
- In Flight Mission Selection Among Preplanned Ones
- In Flight Retargeting
- Network Enabled
- Outranges SAM systems
- Selectable Impact Parameters
- Utilizing INS + GPS + radar and barometric altimeter information
- Ability to follow waypoints and terrain contours
- IIR Seeker
- Long target detection range
- Higher resolution imaging system than existing systems
- High agility under missile maneuvers
- Inherently resistant to ECM
- SOM Mission Planning Capabilities
- Advanced mission performance analysis
- MIL-STD 3014 Mission data set construction for platform and store
- Component based mission planning approach and architectural readiness for JMPS and ALIS Integration
- Future Development - NATO UAI compatibility & JSF integration
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