Turkey's ROKETSAN missiles to use domestic turbojet engine

Turkish defense contractor Roketsan has said its future missile systems will use fully domestic turbojet engines created for Turkey's stand-off-munition cruise missile, SOM, as of next year.

The turbojet engines will add to Turkey's growing list of domestic defense products. SOM cruise missiles were developed by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey's (TÜBİTAK) Defense Industry Research and Development Institute (SAGE) and produced by Roketsan.

Recently the Undersecretariat of Defense Industry and Kale Aviation Industry Inc. signed a contract that included the design, production, testing, technology demonstration, training, maintenance and technical data package of the turbojet engine and related subsystems to be used in the mass production of SOM missiles, as required by the Turkish Air Force Command.

Kale Aviation is getting ready to finalize its efforts for turbojet engines supplied from abroad. Turbojet engines will be used in SOM missiles as of the middle of next year. So, a critical part of the missiles will have been procured more economically and possible export restrictions will have been prevented.

The finished system could also be used in SOM-like systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and small-class aircraft with minor modifications.

The project has allowed making significant gains in the reduction of external dependency on engine technologies.

The first gain is the development of sub-systems such as alternators, fuel pumps, fuel control systems, electronic control units and pyrotechnic igniters, which could also be used in other engines. In addition, the project also saw the development of compressors, core engines, combustion chambers and turbines. The second major gain is national and original development of all development testing mechanisms, considered a must to develop a new jet engine. The SOM missile family, designed for use against ground and sea targets, comes in different variants including the SOM-A, SOM-B1, SOM-B2, and SOM-J.

The missiles have an operational range of more than 250 kilometers and offer low visibility, high precision, resistance/endurance against mixing measures, network-based movement suitability, engagement with opportunity targets and selection between pre-planned tasks during flight, target definition during flight, selectable stroke parameters and universal weapon interface compatibility.