Thailand’s Ministry of Defence has begun fielding a computerized rifle trigger built to help soldiers shoot down small drones, according to an announcement last month from Israel Weapon Industries, or IWI. The deployment puts the company’s Arbel Anti-Drone System into real world use.

Company officials view Thailand’s move as an endorsement of Arbel as a potential battlefield answer to small drones. The system places computerized control directly into a rifle’s trigger mechanism, giving individual soldiers a counter drone option designed around practicality.

Semion Dukhan, IWI’s marketing director, told Defense News that common counter drone tools include lasers, high powered electronics, interceptors and specialized ammunition. Although those technologies can be effective, he said limitations involving price, mobility or ease of use can reduce their long term viability.

Dukhan described those alternatives as “not viable in the long run.” He presented Arbel as a more practical approach for troops who must engage small aerial targets under battlefield conditions.

“The Arbel is putting a computer to the trigger mechanism of the weapon, so in the context of an anti-drone rifle, what we do is we put the computer in the lower receiver of a standard AR-15 rifle … and with this computer, we control the trigger mechanism of the weapon,” Dukhan said.

The system functions somewhat like a fully automatic weapon because the operator depresses and holds the trigger to engage it. However, the first round remains mechanically fired before the computerized system takes control of the firing rate.

“So you as an operator, the first bullet that you will shoot, will be purely mechanical … and from the second bullet onward, the system controls the rate of fire to a specific rate of fire that we analyzed as optimal,” Dukhan said.

IWI established that rate after analyzing thousands of test shots, according to Dukhan. The company was looking for a firing pattern that offered the best chance of striking the type of small and fast target troops could encounter.

“We came down to the specific figure … to get the most chances to hit this kind of target,” Dukhan said. He described the target as measuring 10 to 15 inches in diameter and traveling at roughly 60 kilometers per hour.

The testing covered ranges of 150 to 200 meters. Those dimensions, speeds and distances illustrate the challenge Arbel is designed to address, with the operator responsible for aiming and tracking while the system handles the timing of fire.

IWI first unveiled Arbel in 2024 as a system intended to improve marksmanship during stressful conditions. Early promotional videos showed an operator holding down the trigger while Arbel waited to release rounds until the system determined that conditions were suitable.

The original Arbel version calculates stability and range before firing a round. The version designed to counter drones instead uses an algorithmically calculated firing rate, shifting the computer’s job from evaluating stability to controlling timing.

“For the anti-drone, it’s only timing. When you, as a user, use the anti-drone algorithm and put it on the Arbel anti-drone safety position, then it only works on timing,” Dukhan said.

Dukhan called the drone focused option more “predictable” than the stability based version. That approach leaves the rifle operator to concentrate on aiming and following the target rather than managing the precise timing between rounds.

He argued that Arbel can turn anyone carrying a rifle into a counter drone operator. The company’s pitch rests on giving troops a computerized firing aid without moving them to lasers, interceptors, high powered electronics or specialized ammunition.

Thailand is not the first country to adopt Arbel. Before the Thai deployment, approximately 25 other countries had already adopted the system either to improve marksmanship or to counter drones, according to IWI.

The Thai fielding gives IWI another deployment for a system that started as a marksmanship aid and now includes a dedicated drone algorithm. For the company, that move serves as a real world endorsement of its computerized trigger concept.