Cirit is a

laser-guided Laser guidance directs a robotics system to a target position by means of a laser beam. The laser guidance of a robot is accomplished by projecting a laser light, image processing and communication to improve the accuracy of guidance. The key ide ...

70 mm missile system under production by Turkish arms industry manufacturer ROKETSAN. It is one of the projects launched by Turkey to equip the Turkish Army's T-129 Atak, AH-1P Cobra and

AH-1W Super Cobra The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engined attack helicopter that was developed on behalf of, and primarily operated by, the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The twin Cobra family, itself part of the larger Huey family, includes the AH-1J S ...

attack helicopters with low-cost precision strike capabilities. It has been selected by

Eurocopter Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter S.A., trade name, trading as Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopte ...

for execution of a test and integration program to equip the

Eurocopter EC635 The Eurocopter EC635 (now Airbus Helicopters H135M) is a multi-purpose light helicopter developed by Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) as a military version of the Eurocopter EC135. It is a twin-engined aircraft and can carry up to 8 people, ...

. The weapon's name comes from a traditional Turkish horseback game,

Cirit Jereed, known by the name Equestrian Javelin (also jerreed, jerid, or jerrid; ) is a traditional Turkish equestrian team sport played outdoors on horseback in which the objective is to score points by throwing a blunt wooden javelin, or stick, at ...

(pronounced ''Jirit''), where two teams of riders fight a mock battle using wooden

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

s which are called cirit.

Description

Cirit is a 70 mm (2.75 in) guided missile system fitted with a

semi-active laser Laser guidance directs a robotics system to a target position by means of a laser beam. The laser guidance of a robot is accomplished by projecting a laser light, image processing and communication to improve the accuracy of guidance. The key ide ...

homing seeker. The seeker and guidance section is attached to a purpose-built

warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...

with a Class 5 Insensitive Munition (IM). The multipurpose warhead has a combined

armour-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate armour protection, most often including naval armour, body armour, and vehicle armour. The first, major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the t ...

ammunition with enhanced behind armor

anti-personnel An anti-personnel weapon is a weapon primarily used to maim or kill infantry and other personnel not behind armor, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. The development of defensive fortification and combat vehicles gav ...

and incendiary effects. The engine is of reduced smoke design, with IM properties. It is connected to the rear section by a roll bearing that enables it to rotate in flight. There are four small stabilising surfaces at the very rear of the missile in front of the exhaust nozzle that ensures stable flight. Roketsan has developed a new launch pod and a new canister in which Cirit is delivered as an all-up round. The Cirit has a maximum effective guided range of 8 km with a high probability of hit on a 3×3 m target at this range.

Development

Initial work on the Cirit design began in 2004 and it was first shown in public during

IDEF IDEF, initially an abbreviation of ICAM Definition and renamed in 1999 as Integration Definition, is a family of modeling languages in the field of systems and software engineering. They cover a wide range of uses from functional modeling to da ...

2007. Roketsan had opted not to follow the lead of other similar 70 mm (2.75 in) guided rocket programmes and has developed the Cirit as an all-up round and not as an add-on guidance kit for existing

unguided rocket In military terminology, a rocket is a self-propelled, unguided or guided, weapon-system powered by a rocket engine. Though used primarily as medium- and long-range artillery systems, historically rockets have also seen considerable use as air-t ...

s. This has seen the company work on several new components for the rocket including its semi-active laser seeker, actuation and

control systems A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial co ...

, bearings,

computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random-access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case. It includes external devices ...

and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

. Multipurpose high performance

motor An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

and specific container were designed and developed by TUBITAK-SAGE. The Cirit is designed for use with existing 70 mm rocket launchers such as the LAU-61, LAU-68, LAU-130, LAU-131, M260 and M261. Roketsan is also developing a new series of digital launchers, with seven and 19 tubes, to take advantage of the Cirit's

MIL-STD-1760 MIL-STD-1760 Aircraft/Store Electrical Interconnection System defines a standardized electrical interface between a military aircraft and its carriage stores. Carriage stores range from weapons, such as GBU-31 JDAM, to pods, such as AN/AAQ-14 L ...

databus capabilities. It has been in production since 2010 and 5000 units have been delivered to customers. 12 January 2010, Roketsan's Cirit is the first 2.75" laser guided rocket to engage moving targets. Cirit successfully engaged a moving target travelling at 60 km/h while the platform (

) it was fired from was moving at 220 km/h (120 knots). 12 May 2011, Roketsan signed an agreement with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for the integration of its Cirit Smart Launcher System on the T-129 attack helicopter. 2012: Delivery to the Turkish Armed Forces 2014: Delivery to the UAE Armed Forces 2018: Serialized production of the shortened (970mm) unpowered MAM-C micro munition based on the Cirit.

Export

* Roketsan is in talks with

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...

officials for the possible sale of the Cirit. * Roketsan has signed a memorandum of understanding with

to execute a test program for integration of the Cirit to

. * At IDEX'13, Roketsan has contracted a US$196.2 million deal with

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

for the export of an undisclosed number of Cirit rockets. The order was received from Tawazun on behalf of UAE Armed Forces. * ROKETSAN and European defense company

MBDA MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems. * * integrated on Salex ES Falco * * * *

References

{{Turkish Army vehicles Air-to-surface missiles of Turkey Anti-tank rockets Air-to-ground rockets

Military equipment introduced in the 2010s

Description

Development

Export

See also

References