SOM-J is an air-to-surface missile to be used against heavily defended, high-value anti-surface warfare and land targets. Lockheed Martin is teamed with Roketsan and is delivering experience and expertise to the SOM-J development team for F-35 internal carriage integration. SOM Cruise Missile (Turkish: Satha Atılan Orta Menzilli Mühimmat) is a next-generation high precision cruise missile, which can be launched from land, sea and air platforms developed by TÜBİTAK SAGE, Defence Research and Development Institute of Turkey. Although being developed by TÜBİTAK SAGE which still holds authority over the design of the missile, Roketsan has been given the role of producing and marketing the missile for export.
On 24 October 2014 Roketsan of Turkey and Lockheed Martin entered into a teaming agreement whereby the parties would modify, produce and market jointly a new variant of the SOM missile dubbed SOM-J for use in the internal carriages of the F-35. Certification efforts are in progress to enable the SOM missile for integration with both Turkish Air Force F-35 Lightning II and NATO allied F-35. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control executive vice-president Rick Edwards has stated that the SOM missile developed by Roketsan is highly advanced and highly effective against command-and-control facilities, surface-to-air missile sites, parked aircraft and surface ships.
Due to its advanced design and performance, the SOM cruise missile is one of two cruise missiles to be integrated with the F-35, the other being the Joint Strike Missile developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace of Norway. On the 10th of May 2013, Lockheed Martin had officially announced at the F-35 Industry Recognition Event during the IDEF tradeshow that the SOM missile will be certified and deployed on the F-35. The SOM Missile is the first non-U.S. made weapon to use the Universal Armaments Interface (UAI). Accordingly, the SOM missile can be integrated onto any platform which uses UAI.
