Lockheed Martin and Roketsan to jointly develop future SOM-J cruise missile.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control Executive Vice President Rick Edwards and Roketsan Chairman of the Board Eyüp Kaptan signed the agreement.

“Lockheed Martin has a long history of partnership with the Republic of Turkey, and we look forward to working closely with Roketsan on this very important project,” Edwards said. “SOM-J will provide the F-35 and other aircraft an exceptional capability to meet the most challenging mission requirements. We look forward to combining the skills and know-how of our two great companies to produce a world-class system to meet customers’ expanding needs for long-range, survivable cruise missile technology.”

“At Roketsan, we believe this teaming will increase the attention on SOM-J and present a superior solution to fulfill the requirements of anti-surface warfare capabilities on the F-35 aircraft,” Kaptan said. “We value our partnership with Lockheed Martin and look forward to additional business opportunities in the future."

The SOM can be used against stationary and moving targets at a distance of over 180 kilometers.

SOM-J is a low observable SOM variant designed to fit internal weapon bay of the F-35 Lightning II jet.

Another major difference is the warhead of SOM-J which is anti-ship and semi-armour piercing type with blast/fragmentation effects on soft targets (i.e. personnel, unarmoured military vehicles, radars, buildings, etc.).