Armed Forces
Turkish CIRIT and UMTAS Missiles Offered for Polish Helicopters. Roketsan in Kielce – Cooperation Agreements with WZL 1 and MESKO
During the MSPO event, Roketsan signed two separate agreements on cooperation with MESKO and Wojskowe Zakłady Lotnicze No. 1 [Military Aviation Works] facility, in the presence of the Turkish ambassador in Poland Yusuf Ziya Özcan and Turkish Deputy Undersecretary of Defence Industries Celal Sami Tüfekçi.
The first Agreement on cooperation was signed by the Roketsan‘s Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Erguder Toptas and by the Mesko’s Chairman of the Board, Waldemar Skowron. This agreement covers the collaboration on 2,75” Laser Guided Missile “CIRIT”, Laser Guided Long Range Antitank Missile “UMTAS”, Air Defence Missile, Guidance Kits for Classical Ammunition and other Precision Guided Weapon Systems.
Roketsan promotes cooperation on co-production of CIRIT and UMTAS for the offset of Kruk programme. The Roketsan armament is currently the primary ordnance carried by the T129 ATAK helicopter. ATAK is one of the rotor-craft which are offered for Poland, within the scope of the “Kruk” procurement programme.
Waldemar Skowron said: “We are very pleased. The memorandum opens the door wide for both sides. Our Turkish partner and ourselves are now able to reach progress in modern forms of missile systems. This is a magnificent example of cooperation between NATO countries“.
The second Agreement on cooperation was signed by the vice-president of the Roketsan Company – Erguder Toptas, and by the president of the WZL No. 1 facility, Jan Piętnowski. The agreement is covering the integration of CİRİT and UMTAS weapons with the Russian Mil-designed rotorcraft, including the Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-24 helicopters. Both parties additionally declared that there is an option of expanding the cooperation with additional products and programs.
Using the occasion, the president of the Roketsan company stated:
„We believe the result of this initiative will enable us to expand and deliver our systems to friendly nations using Mi-Series helicopters and also extend to further business cooperation between the two companies”.
The Roketsan company currently offers the, CİRİT for low-cost high precision strike capability. This 70 mm laser guided missile is used to eliminate light armour, fast moving opportunity targets. The weapon has a range from 1.5 to 8+ km with a weight of 15 kg. It is launched from a specially designed launcher, giving the missile extensive capabilities. CİRİT has a multi-purpose warhead that has incendiary, armour piercing and antipersonnel effects. The T129 ATAK is able to carry up to four CİRİT launchers each housingfour CİRİT missiles. launch. Other aircraft capable of carrying the said weapon include the AH-1W, Bell 407, EC635 rotor-crafts and AT-802 Border Security Aircraft used by international armed forces.
CİRİT is also integrated with the Falco UAV systems developed by SELEX company. The company also developed a stabilized autonomus weapon station that can fire 8 CİRİT missiles integrated on land vehicles. Roketsan is currently executing works, the aim of which would be to integrate the CİRİT weapon with the corvettes and fast patrol boats. The combat-proven CİRİT has been under serial production since 2010 and produced over 5.000 units and delivered to customers worldwide.
Another missile integrated with the Soviet origin helicopter, within the scope of cooperation with the WZL-1 facility, is UMTAS in two basic variants: UMTAS – Imaging IR-guided; and L-UMTAS – the laser guided . Purpose of both missiles is to neutralize the enemy with heavy armour. Newly designed warhead has the capability to penetrate ERA armour. In Turkish Armed Forces, the weapon is integrated on the AH-1W Cobra, T-129 ATAK and SH-60B Seahawk helicopters. Even though the company is focused on integrating the rockets with the helicopters, the officials claim that the weapon may be easily tailored to be used by the UAV systems or the fixed-wing aircraft. At the same time, variants of the UMTAS missiles launched from ground and maritime platforms are being developed.
UMTAS and L-UMTAS are designed to be used in day-time and night-time conditions, also against the targets that are covered by camouflage. The system has lock-on before launch, lock-on after launch and lock-on update capabilities. The range of the missile to neutralize the targets between 500 meters and 8 kilometres. Missile has a diameter of 160 mm and weighs 37.5 kg. T-129 ATAK carries up to 8 UMTAS/L-UMTAS missiles in combination
The missiles coming from CİRİT and UMTAS family, manufactured by the Roketsan company, constitute the basic armament carried by the Turkish TAI T129 ATAK helicopter, offered for the Polish Army within the scope of the “Kruk” programme.