New Delhi: The Trump-backed defence firm Powerus, a US-based drone company known for its Guardian series interceptor drones, is doing business with arch-rivals – India and Pakistan. What has drawn attention is that while the company is doing business with Pakistan by selling it drones, it has partnered with an Indian firm on anti-drone systems. Powerus offers aerial and maritime drones for military and industrial use.
In a media statement on September 17, the drone company stated, “Autonomous Power Corporation, dba Powerus (“Powerus”), a US defence technology company focused on autonomous and unmanned systems, today announced that it has received a limited procurement order from the Ministry of Defence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for unmanned aerial systems and associated support.” The company added that the signing “sets a framework for potential expanded cooperation in unmanned and autonomous systems, subject to definitive agreements and government approvals.”
“We are proud to support Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence, and the memorandum gives both sides a strategic framework to build upon,” Brett Velicovich, co-founder of Powerus, said. A delegation led by Velicovich visited Rawalpindi to meet the Pakistan’s chief of defence, forces Field Marshal Asim Munir, at general headquarters in Rawalpindi.
However, months before signing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pakistan, the company signed a deal with India’s Paras Defence for anti-drone systems.
The company is due to merge with a publicly traded company backed by two of US President Donald Trump’s sons, called Aureus Greenway Holdings. Both companies have said they expect the merger to be completed in early October, according to Reuters.
In March, the company said Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump were “notable investors” as Powerus prepared to go public through a merger with Nasdaq-listed Aureus Greenway Holdings. However, the officials at Powerus have also said that the Trump family investors are passive and that they no say in the company when it comes to operational matters.
The Trump brothers’ investments in defence technology companies have attracted scrutiny because of their father’s position as US president. However, Powerus representatives have said the Trump family investors are passive and have no operational control over the company.
The significance of Pakistan’s signing of the deal is the four-day skirmish that took place between India and Pakistan in May 2025.
Powerus reportedly produces around 3,000 drone interceptors a month, priced at roughly $5,000 apiece, and began manufacturing them in the UAE in June amid the conflict in West Asia.
Indian firm Paras Defence and Space Technologies struck an agreement with Powerus in June for an exclusive licence to manufacture and sell its anti-drone systems within India, in exchange for a licence fee and a revenue share.
The product at the centre of that deal is the Guardian-1, a high-speed, battery-powered counterdrone system designed to combat low-cost aerial threats, built specifically to take down one-way attack drones like the Shahed 136 and Geran 2. But so far, it remains a paper arrangement: while the licensing agreement has been signed, the US-origin equipment has not yet secured an actual order from the Indian armed forces.
However, Powerus doing business with Pakistan faced criticism from within the US. Former US national security advisor Jake Sullivan argued that President Trump has “thrown the relationship with India over the side” in part because of Pakistan’s willingness to do business with his family, calling it a “huge strategic harm” to American interests. He noted that the US had spent decades, on a bipartisan basis, building ties with India, a country he argued Washington should be aligned with on technology, talent, economics and countering China and that this progress has now been undercut by the president’s personal business interests in Pakistan.