The American drone startup Powerus, which is preparing to go public through a merger with a company backed by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, aims to bring Ukrainian and other foreign technologies to the United States to meet growing demand from the Pentagon, company executives said, UNN reports, citing Reuters.
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Powerus, founded a year ago, is set to merge in early October with Aureus Greenway Holdings, a company listed on the Nasdaq. Aureus is engaged in owning and managing golf courses, while the Trump brothers hold an indirect stake in it through the American Ventures investment fund. According to regulatory filings, the fund is expected to hold a 9.9% stake (in the form of beneficial ownership) in the combined company.
The Florida-based company is part of a portfolio of drone and military technology businesses backed by the Trump brothers. The portfolio also includes XTEND AI Robotics, an Israeli drone manufacturer that went public in early September after merging with a publicly traded construction company in which American Ventures also held a stake.
Powerus executives and representatives of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump say that the brothers are passive investors in Aureus and play no operational role in the drone-manufacturing company’s activities. However, "it never hurts when their name is associated with a project," said Powerus advisory board member Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general.
Companies and investors are seeking to capitalize on the rapid growth in demand for drones from the Pentagon and foreign buyers, which emerged after the war in Ukraine demonstrated the importance of autonomous systems on the battlefield.
In interviews with Reuters over recent months, company executives said they planned to grow through acquisitions, foreign partnerships and domestic manufacturing. The goal is to turn Powerus into an American partner capable of bringing in military technologies developed abroad, particularly in Ukraine, and arranging for their production in America.
Brett Velicovich, Powerus’s president and a former U.S. Army special operations intelligence analyst, said he aims to make the company a one-stop provider (a "single-window solution") for the Pentagon, offering foreign technologies with an "American face." According to him, Powerus is in talks with Ukrainian defense technology firms and would like to expand its capabilities, including by adding long-range strike drones to its product line.
The 42-year-old Velicovich has received praise from U.S. President Donald Trump. After Velicovich discussed drones on Fox News last summer, Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform that he "really knows his stuff."
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Despite a number of recent deals, the company is still at an early stage of development. It was incorporated in October last year and, as of early 2026, had not yet conducted revenue-generating operations. After forming a lineup of aerial and maritime drones through the acquisition of other companies earlier this year, it reported first-quarter sales of $1.2 million.
In March, the company unveiled its Guardian interceptor drones, which Velicovich said were the result of "joint development" with Ukrainians.
Its MatrixFold strike quadcopter was not among the leaders in the recent second phase of the Pentagon’s "Drone Dominance" program— a $1 billion initiative aimed at rapidly deploying large numbers of low-cost strike drones. Velicovich said the competition’s requirements for resilience against electronic warfare were particularly challenging.
Recently, Powerus announced that it had received a contract worth up to $90 million from the U.S. Air Force, as well as a commercial agreement worth $22.3 million to protect energy infrastructure in the Middle East on behalf of an undisclosed client. The company also reported talks with Gulf countries.
During a trip to Pakistan in mid-September, Powerus received a limited order from the Ministry of Defence to supply aerial drones and provide operational support for them, and also signed a preliminary agreement with the Pakistan Army on potential cooperation. In addition, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pakistan Air Force, Powerus told Reuters, declining to disclose details. Pakistan's military did not respond to a request for comment.
In Islamabad, Velikovich told Reuters that the aim was to combine American and Pakistani technologies, and that the company was holding meetings with local manufacturers. "We are exploring ways in which we could potentially even manufacture this technology here," he said.