Headline: Trump‑backed startup Powerus wins first Pentagon drone deal as U.S. pivots to cheap AI interceptors
The U.S. Air Force has quietly awarded a procurement agreement to Powerus, a West Palm Beach drone startup backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. through their investment vehicle Aureus Greenway Holdings, tightening business ties between the Trump family and the Pentagon as the U.S.–Iran conflict enters its third month.
Bloomberg reports Powerus will sell an undisclosed number of interceptor drones to the Air Force after a demonstration at an Arizona facility. Powerus co‑founder and president Brett Velicovich described the sale as the company’s first weapons contract with the U.S. military but declined to disclose the order’s scope or value. Pentagon officials also would not confirm quantities; the Defense Department commonly makes limited buys to evaluate new systems before scaling procurement.
Why it matters: the Pentagon is shifting toward inexpensive, potentially expendable counter‑drone systems as Iran and allied groups lean on low‑cost, one‑way “Shahed” attack drones. Defense analysts and officials argue it’s unsustainable to use multimillion‑dollar interceptors like Patriot or THAAD against drones that cost tens of thousands of dollars, prompting a race for cheaper AI‑enabled solutions that can be produced and fielded in large numbers.
This trend is visible on the battlefield. In March, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said roughly 10,000 AI‑enabled Merops interceptor drones—originally developed and combat‑tested in Ukraine—were rushed to the Middle East to defend U.S. forces and partners from drone swarms. Manufacturer and analyst reports say Merops combines a command station, launch platforms and autonomous interceptors that use onboard machine vision (not GPS or satellite links), enabling operations in heavily jammed environments. The system has reportedly achieved more than 1,000 kills in Ukraine and has been deployed in Poland, Romania and multiple U.S. bases in the region.
Powerus’s new Pentagon deal comes weeks after Bloomberg reported the startup has been pitching weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, including an interceptor designed to counter Iranian Shahed‑136s. That combination—Trump family‑backed investors financing a firm selling weapons into an active conflict shaped by U.S. policy—raises likely questions about ethics, oversight and governance even as military planners scramble to close the cost and capability gap against Iran’s expanding drone arsenal.
For crypto investors and tech‑sector observers, the story underscores familiar themes: fast‑moving startups, private capital shaping strategic tech, and the governance questions that follow when closely held investment vehicles back firms operating at the intersection of commercial innovation and national security.
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