Trump family-backed drone maker signs agreement with Pakistan

A drone maker backed by two sons of US President Donald Trump says it is in negotiations to sell the defence technology to Pakistan as part of a deal to reduce Islamabad’s reliance on China.

Powerus, which counts Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump among its investors, signed a memorandum of understanding with Field Marshal Asim Munir, Pakistan’s de facto leader, on Wednesday, the company’s co-founders said.

The agreement would lay the groundwork for “joint ventures to localise manufacturing” in Pakistan, they said. It also provides for the sale of drone and interceptor products to Pakistan’s military, a person briefed on the matter in Islamabad said.

The company declined to share the commercial terms of the deal but said it included an initial order to supply drone-related technology.

Pakistan’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brett Velicovich, Powerus’s president and co-founder, said: “I think, for many decades, the US government has been opposed to providing [drone] systems to countries like Pakistan while China has blanketly provided whatever the people here want.”

“That created some dependency where it probably shouldn’t have been,” added Velicovich, a former US Army Special Forces intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan. “But now we are seeing a sort of awakening of US policy, even outside of Pakistan, to share more of our drone systems.”

China accounts for roughly 80 per cent of Pakistan’s defence imports by volume, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Pakistan is the world’s fifth-largest buyer of major arms, SIPRI data shows.

Munir, Pakistan’s most powerful military leader in decades, is seeking to capitalise on an invigorated US-Pakistan relationship after his months-long effort to mediate a ceasefire between the US and Iran. He has also wooed Trump and his inner circle with various deals in areas such as cryptocurrencies and critical minerals.

Andrew Fox, Powerus’s chair and chief executive, said: “Pakistan has the opportunity not only diplomatically but economically, to create industry here, create jobs, and create export opportunities.

“This is more than a one-off for us. This is the establishment of a long-term relationship.”

Powerus, which was founded last year as Autonomous Power Corp, is set to go public this year through a merger with Nasdaq-listed Aureus Greenway Holdings, a golf course group, in a deal brokered by Dominari Securities, an investment firm in which Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are shareholders.

The Trump sons will also invest directly in the combined company through a special-purpose vehicle called American Venture Partners.

The company has licensed drone technology from Ukraine, where mass-produced drones dominate the battlefield with Russia, and acquired other drone companies that specialise in producing low-cost systems that can carry heavy loads in warfare, humanitarian emergencies and precision agriculture.

It also makes about 3,000 drone interceptors a month, which sell for $5,000 each. It is looking to quintuple that output over the next year, and last month signed a $90mn deal to provide interceptors to the US Air Force.

The company’s regional footprint is expanding: Powerus in July began producing interceptors in the United Arab Emirates, which has been targeted by Iranian missile and drone attacks.

Pakistan, meanwhile, is eager to beef up its air defences after a brief but fierce conflict last year with India, in which New Delhi launched armed drones deep into cities such as Lahore and Rawalpindi.

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Pakistani and US officials are keen to build an economic basis to what both sides privately acknowledge is a bilateral relationship rooted primarily in bonhomie between Trump and Munir, whom the US president has called a “favourite field marshal”.

Pakistan’s relations with the US have been complicated in recent years by Islamabad’s past support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the discovery of September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in the country and Washington’s efforts to cultivate closer ties with Pakistan’s arch-rival India.

In January, Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding with an affiliate of Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded by Zach Witkoff, the son of US special envoy and close Trump adviser Steve Witkoff.