总部位于南卡罗来纳州的初创公司 Powerus 于周一在美国陆军协会年会上，发布了其 Guardian 拦截器的完全自主版本。
The South Carolina-based startup Powerus unveiled a fully autonomous version of its Guardian interceptor on Monday at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting.
该公司总裁兼联合创始人 Brett Velicovich 在接受《军事时报》采访时称，合理的产品升级是公司取得成功的关键。他解释说，公司的成长、拦截器的演进，以及伊朗战争背景下美国军方对无人机防御系统日益增长的需求，这些因素已经汇聚在一起。
Brett Velicovich, the company’s president and co-founder, said in an interview with Military Times that logical product upgrades have been key to the company’s success. He explained how the company’s growth, the evolution of its interceptors and rising U.S. military demand for drone-defense systems amid the war in Iran have converged.
他说：“你知道，在伊朗战争初期，美国政府曾面临一个严重问题。当时他们向中东派遣了大量乌克兰拦截器，以为这能解决问题。”
“You know, the U.S. government had a big problem at the beginning of the Iran war, when they sent a bunch of Ukrainian interceptors to the Middle East thinking that it was going to solve a problem,” he said.
根据国会预算办公室的分析，截至 8 月 1 日，美国已使用了约三分之二的特定导弹防御拦截器库存，以拦截伊朗的“沙赫德”等无人机。由于重建供应可能需要数年时间并耗费数十亿美元，政府一直在寻求像乌克兰所用那样更快速、更经济的解决方案，但实施起来并不容易。
According to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. used roughly two-thirds of its inventory of certain missile-defense interceptors by Aug. 1 to stop drones like Iran’s Shahed. Because rebuilding the supply could take years and cost billions, the government has sought quicker and cheaper solutions like those used in Ukraine, but implementing them hasn’t been easy.
“当你前往乌克兰时，你会发现大多数用于拦截无人机的系统其实都是手动控制的，”他说，并解释道：“乌克兰的操作人员非常擅长在空中发现并拦截那些试图发动攻击的无人机。这对乌克兰来说非常有利——因为在那里，你甚至可以用石头砸中那些无人机的飞行员！”
“When you go to Ukraine, most of the interceptors, believe it or not, are manually controlled,” he said, explaining that Ukrainian operators are highly skilled at finding and stopping one-way attack drones in the air. “And that’s great for Ukraine, where you could probably throw a rock and hit a drone pilot.”
据维利科维奇（Velicovich）称，政府最初的想法存在误区：他们认为乌克兰并没有一支专业的无人机作战部队；但实际上，乌克兰拥有由专业飞行员组成的无人机作战大队，这些飞行员拥有丰富的实战经验，知道如何操控无人机进行反击。而在其他国家，情况并非如此。基于这一认识，Powerus公司向美国提供了两款无人机拦截系统：第一代产品“Guardian 1”模仿了乌克兰的手动控制式无人机拦截器设计；第二代产品“Guardian 2”则具备了半自主作战能力，配合雷达系统后能够自动识别威胁并启动拦截行动。
The problem with the government’s initial thinking, according to Velicovich, was that Ukraine has a “proper drone army,” as the country has “entire brigades that are pilots. So those guys have extreme combat experience in knowing how to take a drone and send it into another drone. In other countries, they don’t.”With that understanding, Velicovich explained how Powerus provided the U.S. with the Guardian 1 — modeled after manually controlled Ukrainian drone interceptors — to the semi-autonomous Guardian 2, which, when paired with a radar to detect threats, will launch the interceptor in the direction of a drone.
“这套系统能够获取目标无人机的速度和飞行数据，并据此启动拦截行动，但最终的攻击仍需要人工完成，”他解释道。
“It’ll know the speed and the telemetry. It’ll launch it in that direction, but you still have to do that final phase of manual kill,” he said.
最终，Powerus公司开发出了完全自主的第三代产品“Guardian 3”：当雷达系统检测到威胁时，该系统会自动启动拦截行动，并利用人工智能和导航系统进行精确打击。“这样一来，人为错误就被彻底避免了，”他说。
And finally, Powerus developed the fully autonomous Guardian 3. He explained that when the radar cues it, the system launches in the direction of the threat and can detect and strike using artificial intelligence and navigation systems. “So you kind of take the human error out of it,” he said.
维利科维奇将公司的成功归功于这一策略——这一策略源于他和他的团队在军事领域以及实际作战中使用无人机的丰富经验。
Velicovich credits this strategy, which he and his team derived from first-hand experience in the military and using drones in combat, to the company’s recent success.
如今，Powerus公司已发展成为一家上市公司，市值接近3.9亿美元。10月1日，该公司与Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc.（一家由特朗普的两个长子支持的高尔夫球场管理公司）完成了合并。
In about one year, Powerus has transformed into a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of nearly $390 million. On Oct. 1, it completed a merger with Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc., a golf course holding company backed by the two eldest Trump sons.
随着美国政府寻找寻找低成本无人机拦截器的方法，它也在寻找低成本导弹拦截器。Power 已与总部位于荷兰的国防公司 Destinus 合作，以应对这一挑战。
As the U.S. government looks for ways to find low-cost drone interceptors, it’s also looking for low-cost missile interceptors. Power has partnered with the Netherlands-based defense company Destinus to help meet that challenge.
“Destinus 带来了对这项技术的压倒性、令人难以置信的掌控力，”维利科维奇说，并补充道，Powerus 将成为其“在美国的业务发展渠道，用于销售此前在此地尚未真正销售的系统。”他还表示，Powerus 已收到五角大楼的需求信号，并旨在交付。
“Destinus brings this just overwhelming, incredible ownership of the technology,” Velicovich said, adding that Powerus will be its “business development channel in the U.S. to sell systems that otherwise had not really been sold here yet.”He added that Powerus received the demand signal from the Pentagon and aims to deliver.
“我们知道，如果不购买这些产品，那就是疯了，因为它们在战场上的效果太显著了，”他说。
“We know you’d be crazy not to buy these products because of just how effective they are on the battlefield,” he said.