Azerbaijan Parades Turkish SOM Cruise Missiles

The Azerbaijani military displayed a Roketsan SOM cruise missile for the first time during its annual parade in Baku on 26 June.

This is the first known export of the SOM, which Roketsan says has a range of more than 250 km with a high explosive/blast fragmentation warhead weighing approximately 226 kg.

Stand-Off Missile (SOM) is Turkey’s first indigenous long-range, autonomous, high-precision air-to-surface cruise missile. It was designed and developed jointly by TUBITAK Defense Industries Research and Development Institute (TUBITAK SAGE) and Roketsan to defend ground- and sea-based targets. Development of the SOM cruise missile began in 2006. The missile was unveiled at the 2nd Air Force Base located in Çiğli, İzmir in June 2011.

In October 2014, Roketsan and Texas based Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control signed a teaming agreement on the development of a new generation stand-off cruise missile variant SOM-J.

The SOM is designed to be difficult to detect by radar and has been integrated with F-4 and F-16 aircraft, both of which are flown by the Turkish Air Force, but not its Azerbaijani counterpart. The most likely launch platforms for Azerbaijan’s SOMs are its MiG-29 multirole fighters, although the Su-24 strike aircraft may also be an option.