Story ID: 321 Roketsan general
Turkey’s Rokestan Expands Missile Portfolio
By: David Donald
Caption: Rokestan recently stepped up testing of products such as the Hisar air defense missile.
Word Count: 349
Roketsan has come to the Singapore Airshow with its expanding range of missiles and related systems. The Turkish company has recently achieved several important tests of its weapon systems as they mature towards service entry. Among them is the Hisar air defense missile, which is being developed in both low- and medium-altitude versions.

Hisar employs imaging infrared terminal guidance, thrust-vectoring control, mid-course guidance and dual-pulse rocket motor. A number of successful test firings have been the Hisar-A low-altitude weapon, while the Hisar-O medium-level missile began firing tests last July.

Last year Roketsan (Stand C23) completed development and qualification of the L-UMTAS laser-guided anti-tank/precision attack weapon, and first deliveries to the Turkish armed forces are imminent. The laser version is employed by the T-129 Atak attack helicopter, and has also been fired from the Turkish navy’s Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. An infrared-guided version is in development.

Meanwhile, the Cirit laser-guided rocket has been successfully employed in combat. The weapon was first delivered to the Turkish armed forces in 2012 for use with the AH-1W Cobra and T-129. In 2014 the United Arab Emirates air force took delivery of the Cirit to arm its Iomax AT-802i/Archangel fixed-wing aircraft, which have fired the weapon during action in Yemen.

Here in Singapore the company is highlighting Cirit’s land-based application with the new PMC (pedestal-mounted Cirit) system that can be installed on a high-mobility tracked or wheeled vehicle.

Other air weapons on show are the Teber, an INS/GPS kit that transforms a standard Mk 81/82 bomb into a precision-guided weapon, and the SOM. The latter is a stand-off missile that is now in Turkish air force service with F-16C/D Block 40s and F-4E-2020 Phantoms.

Roketsan, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, has developed the SOM-J version for internal carriage by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, plus external carriage by other types. Flight trials of SOM-J are due to being in the first quarter of 2017, with serial production expected to start in the following year.