Description Celebrated as Turkey's first indigenously-developed guided missile system, Cirit (Jareed) has managed to attract worldwide attention at the IDEF 2011 international defence industry fair in Istanbul. Developed by Roketsan, one of Turkey's fastest growing defence firms and a prominent national center for weapons R&D, Cirit is a 70mm-diameter, lightweight, semi-active laser guided missile designed to be fired from primarily attack helicopters against lightly-armored and unarmored vehicles, as well as formations of 'soft' targets. Cirit fully complies with the highest NATO standards of MIL-STD 810 and MIL-STD 464, as well as MIL-STD 1760 for its M or LAU-type launcher interface. Capable of high precision strike with a circular error probable (CEP) of only a few centimeters, Cirit is also capable of tracking and destroying moving targets up to 8000 meters from its launch point. The weapon's name is based on a traditional Turkish horseback game, where two teams of riders fight a mock battle using wooden javelins, called in Turkish a cirit. Development of the missile was started in 2004 as a cooperative project between Roketsan and TUBITAK-SAGE, and it was first made public during IDEF 2007. Cirit has completed all of its tests and NATO qualification stage throughout 2009-10 and as of the date of this article, is reported to be in component serial production stage. Cirit provides a low-cost solution for engaging lightly armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles <b>...</b>
