Indian firm conducts autonomous weapon system trials

The Triyam autonomous weapon system was trialled several times from late May to early June in Uttarakhand. (BSS Materiel Limited)

Indian firm Bharat Supply and Support (BSS) Materiel Limited has conducted field evaluation trials of a prototype of its Triyam detect, decide, destroy (3D) autonomous weapon system.

A BSS spokesperson told Janes on 23 June that the trials were conducted in collaboration with the Indian Army on a ‘no cost, no commitment' basis from 30 May to 8 June. In the evaluation, Triyam was paired with the 7.62×51 mm Negev light machine gun (LMG), manufactured by Israel Weapon Industries Limited, and 260 rounds of ammunition provided by the Indian Army.

According to the spokesperson, the Triyam trials were conducted at the northern borders of Uttarakhand, close to the India-China border.

The spokesperson said the development of the system was undertaken under the Buy Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020. This category requires that the procured system is developed locally with a minimum 50% indigenous content.

“[The] Triyam by design is [a] modular, lightweight (60 kg) manportable [system] with quick do-it-yourself assembly/disassembly, ideal for deployment in strategic bunkers for continuous unmanned operations for 92 hours on battery and much more duration with the provision for solar charging of the system battery,” the spokesperson said.

“The battery is also provisioned with [a] sensor-automated thermal jacket for continuous operations in extreme low temperatures … [to] -30°C,” the spokesperson added.

According to the spokesperson, Triyam can be deployed on assets such as tactical combat vehicles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and naval vessels. The weapon features an acoustic artificial intelligence (AI) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) threat-detection suite, which is yet to be patented.