A counter-drone and FPV manufacturer is about to become a publicly traded company by taking over the listing of a Florida golf-course operator. Powerus, formally Autonomous Power Corp., was expected to complete its reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Aureus Greenway Holdings (AGH) on Oct. 1, 2026, according to DroneLife's Sept. 30 report. The combined company is to be renamed Powerus Corporation and trade under the ticker PUSA. As of this writing, UASFeed has not independently confirmed that the closing took place.

The deal has two features that make it more than a routine microcap listing. Its investor group includes Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who DroneLife says are investors in the combined company. And the company's most prominent contract number, a Guardian-2 interceptor deal worth "up to $90 million," describes a ceiling rather than money in hand.

The deal mechanics

The structure is a reverse merger. Under the terms described in an AGH Form 8-K, Aureus Merger Sub, a vehicle created for the transaction, merges into Powerus, which survives as a wholly owned subsidiary of AGH. AGH is a Nevada corporation based in Kissimmee, Florida. Its existing operations include Florida golf courses, per DroneLife.

The merger agreement was signed March 8, 2026. On July 17, AGH, the merger sub, Autonomous Power Corporation and Andrew Fox, acting as stockholder representative, signed a First Amendment to that agreement. The 8-K says the amendment raised the aggregate earn-out shares to 55,000,000 shares of AGH common stock, up from a figure of up to 50,000,000 (adjusted from 42,500,000) in the original agreement. Under the amendment, those shares are deemed fully earned and vested at closing, with no remaining performance, market-price or revenue condition. The exchange ratio stayed unchanged at 599.18229 AGH shares per Powerus share. In practical terms, the former Powerus holders' earn-out no longer depends on hitting targets.

The SEC declared the Form S-4 registration statement effective on Aug. 12, according to an 8-K exhibit dated Aug. 13. That clears a major regulatory step, but the closing still slid. DroneLife notes that a summer close was originally expected when the deal was announced in March; it is now landing in October, and the Aug. 13 announcement itself said early October. Closing remains subject to the remaining conditions in the merger agreement. Andrew Fox is Powerus's chief executive, and Matthew Saker is AGH's interim CEO.

What Powerus says it has

The company's pitch rests on a list of milestones in the S-4 effectiveness announcement, which AGH and Powerus issued jointly and in which each party supplied information about its own business without independent verification of the other's. They are company claims, and the announcement carries its own caveats: the FPV and limited Air Force orders do not guarantee future orders or program-of-record status. The list:

  • FPV order: a purchase order of roughly $2.5 million, according to Powerus, from a defense prime contractor for 1,500 US-manufactured FPV aircraft plus pilot and spare-parts kits, placed with Powerus subsidiary Agile Autonomy LLC. The prime is not named in the material we reviewed.
  • Guardian-2 IDIQ: a competitively awarded Air Force indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for the Guardian-2 counter-drone interceptor, with a ceiling of up to $90 million and a term through mid-2028.
  • Limited Air Force order: a limited Guardian-2 procurement order placed after a successful demonstration.
  • Army xTech: advancement to Phase 3 of the Army's xTech Adaptive Strike Competition after a Phase 2 field evaluation. The announcement notes that a prize competition is not a procurement contract.
  • Agriculture: an agriculture division launched through subsidiary Kaizen Aerospace, with distribution agreements that the announcement says are not firm purchase commitments.

DroneLife also reports a limited procurement order from Pakistan's Ministry of Defence for unmanned aircraft systems and support, announced earlier in September. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ceilings are not revenue

The $90 million figure deserves the most scrutiny. An IDIQ contract sets a maximum the government may spend over its life, and it creates a vehicle through which orders can be placed. It does not commit the government to buy anything. The announcement says orders are placed at the government's discretion and actual awards may be materially less than the ceiling, and DroneLife makes the same point: the ceiling is a maximum, not guaranteed spending.

The disclosed order sizes on the Guardian-2 side are modest by comparison. The one concrete Air Force purchase described is a limited order placed after a demonstration, with no value given. Among the customer orders in the material we reviewed, the only dollar figure attached is the roughly $2.5 million FPV purchase, which works out to about $1,667 per aircraft if the figure is taken at face value and divided across the 1,500 aircraft (the announcement does not break out pricing, and the order also includes kits). That number is a small fraction of the $90 million ceiling.

That gap is the key analytical question for PUSA's first quarters as a public company: how much of the IDIQ headroom converts into delivery orders, and how fast. Investors will have to track task orders, not contract announcements.

Why It Matters

Counter-drone interceptors and low-cost FPV aircraft are both areas where Powerus says it is winning defense business, and the merger gives it a public-market platform to expand production, according to DroneLife. Unlike a traditional IPO, the transaction combines Powerus with an existing Nasdaq-listed company. Reverse mergers of this kind can put an early-stage defense supplier in front of retail investors before its revenue base is proven.

Three things are worth watching. First, whether the Guardian-2 IDIQ produces funded task orders beyond the initial limited buy. Second, whether the defense prime behind the FPV order is identified and whether that order repeats. Third, how the company reports the difference between backlog, contract ceilings and recognized revenue once it files as Powerus Corporation. The announcement itself warns that orders do not guarantee more orders or program-of-record status, which is the right frame for reading every milestone above.

The political profile of the investor group will draw attention, but neither the filings nor the reporting we reviewed tie the investors to any of the contracts listed. The contracts will have to speak for themselves.

Sources