Quote :
KALE AERO will Develop Indigenous Turbojet Engine for SOM ALCM
Oluþturan: 13 March, 2012, 15:56
Savunma ve Havacılık Dergisi
Following the one and half month of intense negotiations between the Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) and Kale Aerospace, a subsidiary of the Kale Group, a US$25 Million R&DE contract regarding the design, development, manufacture, testing and delivery of indigenous turbojet engine prototypes was signed between Kale Aero and the SSM on February 22, 2o12 during a ceremony at the Kale Aero facilities in Tuzla, Istanbul. Kale Aero won the contract ahead of TEI, which has been working on turbojet engines (such as 55 lbf rated TJ-55 and 90 lbf rated TJ-90) for Unmanned Air Vehicles since 2oo4.
Kale Aero is a member of F135 Supplier Team and has been delivering critical hardware for F135 engines to Pratt &Whitney since 2oo6. According to SSM officials Kale Aeoros victory over TEI is based on its lower bid and its experience in F135 engine component/parts design and manufacturing.
The signing ceremony was attended by Deputy Defence Minister Hasan Kemal YARDIMCI, Undersecretary Murad BAYAR, Deputy Undersecretary and Head of Industrial Services Department Sedat GÜLDOĞAN, Head of SSM R&DE and Technology Management Department Zübeyde ÇAĞLAYAN, Founder and the Honorary President of the Kale Group İbrahim BODUR, Head of the Technical and Chemistry Department of Kale Group Osman OKYAY and Kale Aero Director Cemal İlhan ÖZAYDIN as well as high ranking guests from the SSSM and Turkish defence industries.
The Turbojet Engines Development Project of the Turkish Air Force (TuAF), cowering the design and manufacture of indigenous turbojet engines to power locally built cruise missiles, UAVs and jet powered target drones for TuAF, was launched by a Defence Industry Executive Committee (DIEC) decree on December 15, 2o1o, and during its January 5, 2o12 meeting, the DIEC, Turkeys top decision making body on defence industrial procurement, authorized the SSM to initiate negotiation with Kale Aero, which was selected as a candidate Main Contractor company towards contract award.
Under the terms of the contract, Kale Aero will design and manufacture around 1o turbojet engine prototypes under five phases and within 48 months and following the qualification tests they will be delivered to the TuAF. Serial Production of the indigenous turbojet engines will be performed under a separate contract. Kale Aero built indigenous turbojet engines will replace French Microturbo-made TR-40 turbojet engine currently used on Turkeys first indigenous Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) dubbed as Stand-Off Munitions (SOM) and will lay the foundation for an integrated jet engine design and production capability for future projects, according to the ministry officials who were present at the signing ceremony. SOM ALCM is designed, developed and produced by TüBiTAK-SAGE, Defence Research and Development Institute of Turkey.
Speaking at the ceremony Head of the Technical and Chemistry Department of Kale Group Osman OKYAY said that indigenous turbojet engine will serve as the propulsion system for guided missiles and with minor modifications it can be used as a propulsion system for UAVs and small class aircraft. OKYAY also stressed that they are targeting to complete project within 48 months and under five phases namely; Requirement Analysis, Preliminary Design, Detailed Design, Prototype Manufacturing and Qualification and added Under the project 9 technical working groups will be formed and a total of 47 engineers, and academicians as well as 10 technicians will serve under these working groups. Under the project we will also collaborate with Istanbul Technical University and TüBiTAK. Within the scope of the project we will establish a new R&DE Laboratory, where the prototype manufacturing will take place and to perform a total of 26 comprehensive tests including 15 subsystem tests and 11 system tests.
Deputy Defence Minister Hasan Kemal YARDIMCI underlined that indigenous turbojet engine will initially power SOM cruise missile and will replace exported turbojet engine currently used on the missile and added Such projects would cut foreign dependency in the defence industry and the Ministry always supported them and we wish these works would increase in number.
Speaking at the ceremony Undescretary Murad BAYAR stressed that the contract was awarded to Kale Aero following to a strong competition and the government has taken advantage of this completion in terms of project value and project duration and went off saying Off course this is a technologically difficult project, requires serious work of engineering and high technology. Do not forget that there are only a couple of turbojet engine producers in the world and the technologies to be obtained under this project will lay important the foundations for the future projects. Though it is not an important project in terms of budget but we place great emphasis on this project.
According to Kale Aero officials indigenous turbojet engine will incorporate the best features of Microturbos TR-40 and the undisclosed US turbojet engine (believed to be Teledyne CAE J402 series) and will be in the 3.o kN to 3.6 kN (680 lbf to 810 lbf) thrust class. The engine will run on either JP8 or JP10 fuel and since the engine will be designed for a one-time use missile, its service life will be only 20 minutes.
Indigenous Turbojet Engine Specifications:
Type: Single Spool Turbojet
Major Applications: SOM cruise missile family
Fully Functional Prototype Delivery: 2o16
Length: 72 cm
Diameter: 30 cm
Dry Weight: < 5o kg
Specific Fuel Consumption (SEC): < or = 1.2 kg/daN/hr
Compressor: Various configurations will be studied during design phase including 4 stage axial, 5 stage axial and 1 axial and 1 radial compressor combination.
Turbine: Single Stage
Fuel Type: JP8, JP10
Lubrication System: Grease Pack but fuel lubrication will also be studied.
Generator: Permanent magnet based generator will be mounted on the engine shaft.
Maximum Thrust: 3.0 - 3.6 kN (680 lbf 810 lbf).
SOM Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) Hits 300 km!
Designed, developed and manufactured by TüBiTAK-SAGE, Defence Research and Development Institute of Turkey, under a US$80 Million valued contract awarded by the Turkish MoND in March 2oo6, the SOM is a family of new generation, air launched non-nuclear, long range, fire and forget type precision strike missiles capable of defeating both fixed non-hardened and hardened land targets as well as moving sea targets. The 1.300 lb (600 kg) SOM ALCMs airframe is designed with stealth capability provided by the shape of the airframe and the materials used in its construction, to give the missile a low detection probability and allow it to penetrate enemy air defence systems.
Under the project prototype missiles were manufactured in 2oo8 and following extensive wind tunnel and systems tests, captive-carry and release trials were performed from a F-4E 2o2o aircraft in 2o1o. 2o1o also witnessed first live firing test of SOM-A (INS/GPS + TRNS guided version) from a F-4E 2o2o aircraft.
SOM-A aircraft release tests were also performed on a F-16D Block 40 in 2o11. SOM was first displayed aboard a TuAF F-16C Block 50 aircraft during the 100th year celebrations of the Turkish Air Force held at the 2nd MJB Command in Çiğli, Izmir during June 4-5 2o11. During a live firing test performed on August 9, 2o11 with F-4E 2o2o in Black Sea, SOM-A flew more than 100 nm (185km) before hitting its determined target with high accuracy.
SOMs first international debut was took place during DSEi Exhibition in London UK, where the full-scale mock-up of the missile was displayed at TüBiTAK-SAGE stand in September 2o11. The delivery of a first batch of missiles to the Turkish Air Force was supposed to take place by the end of 2o11. The TuAF requires hundreds of SOMs, and serial production of SOM missiles will be carried out by a Turkish Defence Industry company (MKEK and Roketsan are potential candidates) starting from 2o13 since TüBiTAK-SAGE performs only design and prototype production.
Though the missiles effective range was initially announced as 100 nm, (185km) speaking at the press meeting held at TüBiTAK Headquarters in Ankara on January 13, 2o12 to update press members on the recent developments on Turkeys missile programs President of the TüBiTAK (The Scientific and Technological Researches Council of Turkey) Prof. Dr. Yücel ALTUNBAŞAK stated that they have been carrying firing tests with SOM missile up to the range of 300 km and during recent test missile has successfully hit its target at 300 km with circular error probable (CEPs) of 5 meters, even they had goaled 1om CEP. He went on saying, We are planning to perform 500 km (air launched version, ALCM) range firing tests in 2o12 with SOM.
Later the range will be extended to 1.500km and eventually to 2.500 km (surface launched versions, LACM) in 2o14. ALTUNBAŞAK, also underlined that the order for the extended range missile program had come from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN.
Powered by a Microturbo TR-40 turbojet engine (in the 2.5 kN to 3.34 kN [560 lbf to 750 lbf) thrust class, the SOM is an indigenously developed high-subsonic cruise missile designed to meet Turkish Air Force requirements. Though it is smaller it shares several features with LFK KEPD-350 Taurus and MBDA Scalp/Storm Shadow missiles. SOM ALCM has three versions; SOM-A is equipped with INS/GPS guidance system plus Terrain Referenced Navigation System (TRNS/TERCOM) coupled with radar altimeter and has 230 kg HE type unitary warhead. SOM-B1 version also has HE type unitary warhead, whereas SOM-B2 is armed with dual-stage tandem penetrator and in addition to GPS/INS they both also employ Imaging Infrared Seeker (IIR, has cooled type 640x512 pixels detector) for enhanced terminal guidance plus TRNS/TERCOM, radar altimeter and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) system. IIR seeker can be used to provide image-based midcourse navigation (IBN) by taking snapshots of waypoints and comparing them against predicted position to update the navigation system. Intended targets for the SOM ALCM are including command and control facilities, surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, parked aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters (HAS), strategic assets and surface ships.
Design and development studies on SOM-A and SOM-B1 have been completed and works on SOM-B2 are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2o13. TüBiTAK-SAGE is also working on a two way encrypted RF data-link capability, which will allow in-flight re-tasking against moving targets, for SOM missiles and planned to complete its studies until the missile enters serial production phase.
SOM can be carried internally by the F-35 Lightning II JSF, if the tail fins are folded and TuAF plans to deploy SOM ALCM on F-35As. For this purpose a number of TüBiTAK-SAGE personnel joined Turkeys JSF Project Team.
The French Microturbo TR-40 turbojet engine, to be replaced with Kale Aeros indigenous turbojet engine, GPS, INS, IIR detector, ATR sensor and radar altimeter have been sourced from abroad, but algorithms for ATA system, IIR seeker and TRNS have been developed by TüBiTAK-SAGE engineers. The fuel system and warheads on board the SOM ALCMs were also designed locally. TüBiTAK-SAGE has also developed a Mission Planning System, a digital flight control computer with a capacity for up to 50 waypoints and a thermal battery with a service life of 25 minutes for the SOM ALCM family.
SOM ALCM Specifications:
Weight: 600 kg (1.300 lb)
Length: 3.85 m
Warhead: 230 kg (500 lb) HE unitary or Dual Stage Tandem Penetrator
Engine: Microturbo TR-40 turbojet engine
Wingspan: 2.6 m (during flight)
Operational Range: 15onm, (500km will be tested in 2o12)
Cruise Speed: Mach 0.8
Guidance System: INS/GPS, TRNS/TERCOM, ATR, IIR, radar altimeter + two way RF data link
Launch Platform: F-4E 2o2o, F-16D and F-35A (planned)