Blackwater founder Erik Prince creates air defence venture with Kyiv

Erik Prince, the founder of the private military contractor Blackwater—which operates today under the name Academi—has established a new enterprise, Vectus Air Defense Systems, that applies a paid subscription model to its air defence systems.

According to a report by the Financial Times (FT), the new company will operate on an “air defence as a service” principle based on software subscriptions. Under multi-year contracts, it will design, install, and maintain multi-layered air defence systems.

The company positions its air defence systems as a more cost-effective alternative to Patriot-type anti-missile systems deployed against inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles in Middle Eastern conflicts.

Vectus products will integrate technologies from the US, Ukraine, Israel, and other nations, including sensors, electronic warfare tools, interceptor drones, and high-rate-of-fire heavy autocannons.

The company was founded in partnership with Swarmer, a Ukrainian drone software development group. Swarmer, which is among the founding investors of Vectus, holds a 20% stake in the firm.

The FT reported that the two companies will collaborate on counter-drone technologies, including sensors and swarm systems. According to the report, Prince currently serves as the non-executive chairman of Swarmer.

In a statement to Axios, Prince said: “It is clear the threat is rapidly evolving, and private sector demand for such solutions is very high. We must drastically lower defence costs and enable clients to take the protection of critical facilities into their own hands.”

A representative for Prince stated that the prominent entrepreneur spent the past year meeting with technology suppliers and prospective clients across Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

According to the representative, the developed air defence systems offer the most viable solution for major commercial and civilian installations that either do not wish to entrust, or cannot entrust, their security entirely to the state.

An ally of US President Donald Trump, Prince has a long-standing involvement in the defence sector.

Having established his private security firm in 1997, Prince’s company Blackwater signed $2 billion in government security contracts between 1997 and 2010, including the protection of US Department of State personnel.

The company carried out approximately 100,000 missions during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Certain operations conducted by Blackwater, however, drew fierce criticism.

An incident in September 2007, in which company personnel opened fire on a crowd in Baghdad’s Nisour Square—killing 17 Iraqi civilians and severely wounding 20 others—provoked massive public outrage.

US courts convicted three employees on 15 separate counts of manslaughter in 2014 and 2019.

Following the Blackwater era, Prince established Presidential Airways, a global aviation transport company operating more than 75 aircraft across emerging markets, and Frontier Resource Group, a private investment firm focused on natural resource ventures.

A primary operational focus of this investment firm involved providing logistics to oil and mining companies in remote and hazardous regions of Africa.

In 2014, Prince acquired a 25% stake in the Austrian aviation company Airborne Technologies.

Entities affiliated with Prince sought to modify Thrush 510G agricultural crop-duster aircraft by outfitting them with surveillance equipment, machine guns, armour, and rocket pods.

The Guardian reported in September of last year that Prince planned to acquire a Ukrainian drone manufacturer. At the time, the Blackwater founder was seen engaging with local drone producers in Kyiv.

The newspaper noted that Prince’s interest in Ukraine was long-standing, recalling that in 2020 he had submitted a multi-billion-dollar proposal through his private security firm to resolve the crisis in the Donbas, though the deal never materialised.

As subsequently reported by The Guardian, Prince joined the board of directors of Swarmer, a Ukrainian start-up specialising in autonomous drone swarm management.

The Blackwater founder described the company as a venture “born in the crucible of modern combat”.