Turkish SOM( stand-off missile) has been shown at DSEi 2011 which took place in London. Flightglobal’s article about this missile:

DSEi: Turkish cruise missile design breaks cover
By Craig Hoyle

Turkey has performed a successful first flight test with an indigenously-developed cruise missile design, which the nation hopes could eventually be integrated with its future fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Developed by the Defence Industries Research and Development Institute, or Tubitak Sage, the modular stand-off missile (SOM) design was released by a McDonnell Douglas F-4E 2020 strike aircraft on 9 August.

“The missile hit its target with a high accuracy by covering a distance of over 100nm [185km],” Tubitak Sage said.

All images © Tubitak Sage

The institute is displaying a full-scale model of the weapon at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition in London, UK.

In addition to the recent test involving the F-4E Phantom, Tubitak Sage is also currently working on the integration of the SOM design with the Lockheed F-16 Block 40 fighter for the Turkish air force.

Installation trials have already been performed (below), with the remaining work expected to conclude later this year. A production order is anticipated later, with this to potentially prompt interest from export customers, the institute said.

Material released by Tubitak Sage describes the SOM as having a release weight of 600kg (1,300lb), including a high-explosive warhead weighing 230kg.

Intended targets for the turbojet-powered design are cited as including command and control facilities, surface-to-air missile sites, parked aircraft and surface ships.

Guidance is provided by using inertial navigation system/global positioning satellite equipment and a terrain-referenced navigation system, with the use of pre-programmed waypoints to avoid air defence assets.

During its terminal attack phase, the weapon’s intended target is verified by using an imaging infrared seeker. Its accuracy is described as being “within a few metres”.

The following screenshot is taken from MSI Magazine which is a defense publication in Turkey. It shows a F-4E/2020 loaded with SOMs taxing before live firing test or an exercise…

Fascinating! I wasn’t aware of this winged kit. I presume the four wing hardpoints are the locations these bombs are carried?

The kinda remind me of a scaled-up Small-Diameter Bomb (is there a JDAM-ER with wings?)

F-4Es can carry them in stations 1/2 and 8/9. In fact, even RF-4Es are now capable of carring these bombs after the ISIK upgrade.

AFAIK, JDAM-ER has wings to extend the range. The design and certification tests on F/A-18s have been performed in Australia with the help of Boeing.

You learn something new every day.

So do the Turks have smaller 1000 or perhaps 500-lb. variants of this HGK bomb planned? Do the F-16’s or F-4’s have the capability to target multiple things at once or is it one bomb for one target at a time?

Yes, there are different versions of HGK kit. Original HGK( means precision guidance kit) uses 2000lb Mk-84 bombs. The most recent development is the addition of wings to HGK kit to extend the range. The wing kit uses Mk-82/83class bombs instead of Mk-84. According to information released by TUBITAK-SAGE, the wing gives 60nm range when it is released from 30K feet. You can see the retractable wing and HGK adapted to Mk-82 below. It is named as KGK(means winged guidance kit).

Yes to your second question as well. These kits( HGK or KGK) can be programmed to hit different targets in different locations. For example, F-4E2020 can carry up to four KGK and hit multiple targets in one sortie. Each KGK can be aimed to a different target. You can either program and up load target coordinates on the gorund, or during the flight. F-4E’s SAR radar can determine ground targets in all weather( and target coordinates) and pass them into KGK and HGK.

So this HGK bomb…I’ve heard of it before. You say it’s similar to the GBU-31, but different in some ways. Does this include range or other parameters or are they more aesthetic differences?

Are the F-16’s and F-4’s cleared to use the bomb on the four heavy underwing pylons each jet has or perhaps a maximum of two per airplane?

HGK has four moving control surfaces compare to JDAM’s three moving control surfaces in the tail. HGK uses a different guidance logic and algorithms but from outside both kits look similar. Occording to the engineers who developed HKG, this kit has very low CEP values and high angles of attack properties because of its very tight INS and four moving control surfaces.

Sahin and Swerve, regarding your doubts as to the accuracy of Al’s statements.

I have seen this myself many times. During the early 1990’s Turkish F-4s REGULARLY flew from Incirlik (usually as 2 pairs), fully bombed up. We were told they were actually armed at Incirlik, and went on to bomb targets in Northern Iraq (presumably PKK).

We always found it very peculiar that we were deployed there to enforce a UN no-fly zone, protecting the civilians in Northern Iraq, whilst a NATO ally was being given support (fuel and weapons) to be able to attack the same people!

First, early years of 1990s, Turkish F-4E were participating daily flights of NATO over N. Iraq. But the difference was TuAF was not crossing over Iraq air space but turn around and come back. Especially TuAF wanted to train with NATO Kc-135s tankers becasue TuAF did not operate a tanker aircraft in those days. Those half missions were given Turkish pilots a chance to practice AAR. Also they get used to NATO practices for joint operations, briefings etc. Secondly, TuAF’s F-4E deployments to Incirlik was not permanent but shot lived one. You said you saw F-4Es are loaded up with bombs and bombed N. Iraq. You could not be sure that those missions were about bonming N. Iraq but it could be going to Konya range for practice. I do not think that TuAF will tell you where they drop bombs. There are many closer TuAF air bases to N. Iraq for that purpose. Those days, NATO/US were acting as if they are the only one in the region ignoring Turkish warnigns. If you member, US/NATO did not tell Turkey that they are shooting down two helos close to Turkish borders where Turkish helicopters were also flying at the same time frame. That incident (shooting two friendly Blackhawks) killled 5 high ranking Turkish Officers as well. Finally, TuAF’s main targets were PKK camps and training areas in N. Iraq. What is PKK for you? Bunch of civilians in boot camps? They are responsible attacing and killing many Turkish people regardless of they are women, older or children. If some of the bombs went out of control hit an innocent, I feel sorry for them. Hey, it is an irony that the same US/NATO troops/aircrafts killed thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afganistan.

Dear Al,

I am not in a position to judge what went wrong between US and Turkish generals but Using a NATO base in a foreing country, does not give you a freedom of act or full access to everything. You must obey the rules of that country. Do you think that Turkish Red Flag participants are free of rules when they are deployed to Nellis AFB? You will see many US CITIZENS ONLY signs at the doors. I remember their deployement to Nellis was pain in the ..s. They need to get permissions from many ATCs and etc. The rules were strict but US personal was friendly. That’s what it counts.

PKK’s main training and logistical camps are located inside N. Iraq region. These camps are far from populated areas in N. Iraq. Mostly, they are located in mountains or deep valleys. They bring their heavy weapons, mines and explosives from those camps to organize attacks inside Turkish territories. I do not think that any western nation( or any nation) would allow this to happen. Turkey has been idle for some time against PKK attacks. Turkey’s position was mostly defensive or limited to border patrol activities in recent years. Turkish Government asked N. Iraq Officials not to harbor terrorist camps on their soil but no response so far. Their response usually is “we can not control mountains etc”. PKK is training, getting ammunition, heavy weapons etc from N. Iraq markets freely. Especially after recent PKK attacks which killed 45 members of Turkish security forces in the recent months, Turkey launched air strikes, but no land forces has involved so far.

TuAF F-4E/2020s use Elta EL/M-2032 radar which was selected over Norden APG-76 radar. TuAF was given a flight demostration of the EL/M and found its A/A and A/G performance satisfactory. It is a modern multi-mode pulse doppler radar that has 80 nm a/a and a/g range. It has many A/A and A/G ground modes are available in flight. It can provide high resolution SAR images from stand-off distance that matches Popeye’s performance. With the addition of Turkish JDAM into current inventory of weapons, 2020s can drop GPS/INS guided bombs using SAR mode. Ground targets can be determined day or night from stand-off distances via SAR image taken by the radar, then the location information of the targets can be fed into weapon’s computer system. EL/M-2032 radar also well liked by the crew and showed superior performance against APG-68s(pre V9 versions) in DACT.