With its modular design, which supports operational flexibility, Stand Off Missile (SOM) is an air-to-surface cruise missile family product used against highly defended stationary and moving land/surface targets.
The first flight test of SOM was performed in 2011 and its serial production started in 2013 under the contract between Roketsan and Turkish Ministry of National Defense. Within the scope of the contract, production activities of SOM are ongoing.
Another contract that will be based on the existing SOM technology for the in-house development of a smart munition compatible with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) was signed in 2014 between Roketsan and the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries. With this contract, besides the platform integration studies in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, the main contractor of JSF Program, Stand Off Missile-JSF (SOM-J) development activities have been initialized.
A business partnership agreement for the design, development, production and marketing of the SOM-J Weapon System was signed with Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in 2014. The integration activities of F-35 are currently being carried out in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Specifically developed for intensively protected targets and the F-35 aircraft for sea and land targets, SOM-J will be carried inside the airframe to maintain the low radar signature of the aircraft.
Compared to similar systems, SOM provides the advantage of smaller size and weight, with a 250+ km range for SOM and 185+ km range for SOM-J. With SOM’s new generation navigation system, work on enhancing its operational concept, by in-flight re-programming and network capabilities to be enabled by the integration of data link are ongoing.
Currently, SOM provides selection among pre-planned missions and controllable impact points and parameters. SOM-A and SOM-B1 defeats the targets by a high explosive blast fragmentation warhead, while SOM-B2 and SOM-J carries dual stage tandem penetrator and semi-armor piercing warheads respectively.
