内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2026/ex-marine-and-microsoft-vets-launch-watchtower-labs-with-35m-to-bring-ai-to-military-logistics/

内容总结：

总部位于华盛顿州贝尔维尤的国防科技初创公司Watchtower Labs于周三正式结束隐身模式，宣布获得3500万美元融资，用于开发帮助军事规划人员更快做出后勤与作战决策的人工智能软件。本轮种子轮融资由Shield Capital和Conviction联合领投，Founders Fund以及支持美国情报界的投资机构In-Q-Tel参投。这是Watchtower获得的首笔外部资金，该公司此前在Shield内部孵化。

Watchtower由首席执行官阿基尔·艾耶尔联合创立。艾耶尔曾是海军陆战队步兵和特种作战军官，他表示，和许多退伍军人一样，他对商用iPhone上的技术无法应用到部队实战中感到沮丧。离开军队后，艾耶尔从事反无人机技术工作，随后在Shield Capital投资国防初创企业，期间他观察到军方高级领导人试图弄清楚如何将AI投入实际应用。“其中一个关键问题是，我们如何在全球范围内最优分配稀缺资源，”艾耶尔说，“为此做规划真的很难。”

Watchtower的联合创始人还包括首席技术官苏伦·阿加贾尼扬和工程负责人约翰·莫曼，两人都曾在微软担任工程领导职务多年，从事大规模分布式系统和欺诈防护方面的工作。艾耶尔表示，他决定创办Watchtower后第一个电话打给了卢·马努索斯。马努索斯创立了安全公司RiskIQ，2021年将其出售给微软，后成为微软企业副总裁。阿加贾尼扬和莫曼曾在马努索斯的团队工作，他们已经在思考如何利用仿真和AI改进规划。

该公司的软件允许规划人员用自然语言提问，然后运行仿真来推演可能的场景和方案，首先聚焦军事后勤：将燃料、备件、弹药和人员及时运送到需要的地方。Watchtower针对现实约束条件对数百种可能的未来进行建模，并展示每个方案背后的假设和权衡，而最终决策权仍掌握在决策者手中。艾耶尔表示，该平台将智能体AI与高强度数学计算相结合。“至少目前，你无法单靠大语言模型解决真正复杂的数学问题，”他说，“需要以正确的方式搭建，并在背后做真正的分析。”

艾耶尔表示，许多现有军事工具侧重于让指挥官清楚了解当前拥有什么、在哪里，很少有工具能展望未来。Watchtower的赌注是，它能够弥合AI与仿真优化软件之间的鸿沟来实现这一目标。Watchtower从后勤领域起步，但艾耶尔表示供应决策与作战密切相关，因此公司计划将软件拓展至更广泛的作战规划。

艾耶尔透露，Watchtower已获得多份军事合同。最重要的是今年1月通过国防创新部门的联合保障决策工具项目赢得的一份原型合同，该项目旨在构建AI工具帮助军方提前数周预测后勤需求。据国防创新部门介绍，Watchtower和Air Space Intelligence经过竞争性流程后入选。该项目的合作伙伴包括美国印太司令部（牵头伙伴）、美国北方司令部和国防后勤局。这些工具旨在跟踪和预测弹药、燃料、医疗物资和备件等关键补给。

艾耶尔表示，3500万美元将首先用于团队建设，然后用于交付已赢得的合同并将平台拓展到后勤以外的领域。该初创公司已有收入，但未披露具体数字。Watchtower在贝尔维尤、湾区、夏威夷和华盛顿特区地区设有办公室，共有约30名员工，其中贝尔维尤有十多名。常驻旧金山的艾耶尔表示，公司正搬迁至贝尔维尤更大的办公室，并希望将员工人数翻倍。他说西雅图地区是招聘的核心重点，因为这里聚集了大量“非常技术型的人才，他们可能希望从事更有使命影响力的事情”。

艾耶尔表示，应聘者不需要军事背景。他指出，相当一部分团队成员是移民到美国的，他们将这份工作视为回馈社会的方式。根据阿加贾尼扬在领英上的帖子，Watchtower正在贝尔维尤招聘需要美国公民身份的在岗职位，包括仿真引擎、分布式系统和机器学习方向的工程师。

Watchtower加入了大西雅图地区日益壮大的国防科技集群，该集群还包括：Overland AI，华盛顿大学衍生公司，开发自主地面车辆，今年融资1亿美元并获得海军陆战队价值近2000万美元的生产合同；Shield AI选择华盛顿州得梅因市建造其X-BAT自主战斗机，预计到2030年代初在当地雇佣4000名员工；Anduril在贝尔维尤和西雅图约有560名员工，目标达到1000名工程师，但其扩张引发了抗议；Echodyne今年夏天在伍丁维尔开设了一座耗资4000万美元的无人机探测雷达工厂；Exia Labs由前陆军军官乔纳森·潘领导，正在开发AI软件以加速军事规划并模拟任务；微软和亚马逊于5月签署协议，将其AI系统部署到五角大楼最高密级网络上。

中文翻译：

总部位于华盛顿州贝尔维尤的国防科技初创公司Watchtower Labs周三结束隐身模式，携3500万美元资金亮相，旨在打造帮助军事规划人员更快做出后勤与作战决策的AI软件。Shield Capital和Conviction联合领投本轮种子轮融资，Founders Fund和In-Q-Tel参投。In-Q-Tel是支持美国情报界的投资机构。这是Watchtower获得的首笔外部融资，该公司此前在Shield内部孵化。

Watchtower由首席执行官阿基尔·艾耶尔联合创立。艾耶尔曾是海军陆战队步兵和特种作战军官，他说，和许多退伍军人一样，他对商用iPhone上的技术无法随部队进入战场感到沮丧。离开军队后，艾耶尔从事反无人机技术工作，后来在Shield Capital投资国防初创公司，在那里他看到高级军事领导人试图弄清楚如何将AI投入实际使用。“其中一个关键问题是，我们如何在全球范围内最好地分配稀缺资源，”艾耶尔说，“为此做规划真的很难。”

Watchtower的联合创始人还包括首席技术官苏伦·阿加贾尼扬和工程负责人约翰·莫尔曼，两人都是微软资深工程主管，曾从事大型分布式系统和欺诈防护工作。艾耶尔说，他决定创办Watchtower后，第一个电话打给了卢·马努索斯。马努索斯创立了安全公司RiskIQ，于2021年将其出售给微软，后来成为微软的公司副总裁。阿加贾尼扬和莫尔曼曾在马努索斯的团队工作，他们当时已经在思考模拟和AI如何改善规划。

该公司的软件让规划人员用自然语言提问，然后运行模拟来勾勒可能的场景和选项，首先从军事后勤入手：将燃料、备件、弹药和人员及时运送到需要的地方。Watchtower针对现实世界约束条件对数百种可能的未来进行建模，并展示每个选项背后的假设和权衡，而最终决策仍由决策者掌握。艾耶尔说，该平台将智能体AI与高强度数学计算相结合。“你不能靠大语言模型解决真正复杂的数学问题，至少目前还不行，”他说，“它需要以正确的方式搭建，你需要在背后做一些真正的分析。”

艾耶尔说，许多现有军事工具侧重于让指挥官清楚了解他们当前拥有什么、在哪里。较少有工具展望未来。Watchtower的赌注是，它能将AI与模拟和优化软件连接起来，实现这一目标。Watchtower从后勤起步，但艾耶尔说供应决策与作战紧密相关，因此公司计划将软件扩展到更广泛的作战规划。

艾耶尔说，Watchtower已拥有多份军事合同。最重要的是今年1月通过国防创新部门的联合保障决策工具项目赢得的一份原型合同，该项目正在构建AI工具，帮助军方提前数周预测后勤需求。据国防创新部门称，Watchtower和Air Space Intelligence是在竞争性流程后被选中的。该项目的合作伙伴包括美国印太司令部（牵头合作伙伴）、美国北方司令部和国防后勤局。这些工具旨在跟踪和预测弹药、燃料、医疗物资和备件等关键补给。

艾耶尔说，3500万美元将首先用于扩充团队，然后用于交付Watchtower已赢得的合同，并将平台扩展到后勤以外。该初创公司已有收入，但未披露具体数字。Watchtower在贝尔维尤、湾区、夏威夷和华盛顿特区地区设有办公室，约有30名员工，其中贝尔维尤有十多名。常驻旧金山的艾耶尔说，公司正在搬迁至贝尔维尤更大的办公室，并希望将员工人数翻倍。他说，西雅图地区是招聘的核心重点，因为那里聚集了大量“非常技术化、可能希望从事更有使命影响力工作的人才”。

艾耶尔说，应聘者不需要军事背景。他指出，相当一部分团队成员是移民到美国的，他们将这份工作视为回馈社会的方式。根据阿加贾尼扬在领英上发布的帖子，Watchtower正在贝尔维尤招聘要求美国公民身份的现场岗位，包括模拟引擎、分布式系统和机器学习方向的工程师。

Watchtower加入了西雅图地区日益壮大的国防科技集群，其中包括：

• Overland AI，华盛顿大学的衍生公司，制造自主地面车辆，今年融资1亿美元，并获得了一份价值近2000万美元的海军陆战队生产合同。
• Shield AI选择华盛顿州得梅因市建造其X-BAT自主战斗机，预计到2030年代初将有4000名当地员工。
• Anduril在贝尔维尤和西雅图约有560名员工，并预计可达到1000名工程师，但其扩张引发了抗议。
• Echodyne今年夏天在伍丁维尔开设了一座价值4000万美元的无人机探测雷达工厂。
• Exia Labs由前陆军军官乔纳森·潘领导，正在构建AI软件以加速军事规划并模拟任务。
• 微软和亚马逊于5月签署协议，将其AI系统部署到五角大楼最机密的网络上。

英文来源：

Watchtower Labs, a Bellevue, Wash.-based defense tech startup, emerged from stealth Wednesday with $35 million to build AI software that helps military planners make faster decisions about logistics and operations.
Shield Capital and Conviction co-led the seed round, with participation from Founders Fund and In-Q-Tel, the investment arm that supports the U.S. intelligence community. It’s the first outside funding for Watchtower, which was incubated inside Shield.
Watchtower was co-founded by CEO Akhil Iyer, a former Marine Corps infantry and special operations officer who said that like many veterans, he was frustrated that the technology on commercial iPhones wasn’t making it into the field with troops.
After leaving the military, Iyer worked on counter-drone technology and later invested in defense startups at Shield Capital, where he watched senior military leaders try to figure out how to put AI to practical use.
“One of those key problems is how do we best allocate scarce resources across the globe,” Iyer said. “Planning for that is really hard.”
Iyer’s Watchtower co-founders are CTO Souren Aghajanyan and head of engineering John Morman, longtime Microsoft engineering leaders who worked on large distributed systems and fraud protection. Iyer said his first call after deciding to build Watchtower went to Lou Manousos, who founded security company RiskIQ, sold it to Microsoft in 2021 and later became a corporate vice president there. Aghajanyan and Morman had worked on Manousos’ team, and they were already thinking about how simulation and AI could improve planning.
The company’s software lets planners ask questions in plain language, then runs simulations to map out possible scenarios and options, starting with military logistics: moving fuel, spare parts, munitions and people where they’re needed in time. Watchtower models hundreds of possible futures against real-world constraints and shows the assumptions and tradeoffs behind each option, while decision makers stay in charge of the final call.
Iyer said the platform pairs agentic AI with heavy-duty math.
“You can’t LLM your way to a really complicated math problem, yet at least,” he said. “It needs to be set up in the right way, and you need to do some real analysis behind it.”
Many existing military tools focus on giving commanders a clear picture of what they have right now and where it is, Iyer said. Fewer look ahead to what’s coming. Watchtower’s bet is that it can bridge AI and simulation and optimization software to do that.
Watchtower is starting with logistics, but Iyer said supply decisions are tied to operations, so the company plans to broaden its software into wider operational planning.
Watchtower has several military contracts, Iyer said. The most important is a prototype contract it won in January through the Defense Innovation Unit’s Joint Sustainment Decision Tool program, which is building AI tools to help the military forecast logistics needs weeks in advance.
Watchtower and Air Space Intelligence were picked after a competitive process, according to the DIU. The program’s partners include U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (the lead partner), U.S. Northern Command and the Defense Logistics Agency. The tools are meant to track and forecast critical supplies such as munitions, fuel, medical materiel and spare parts.
Iyer said the $35 million will go first toward building out the team, then toward delivering on the contracts Watchtower has won and expanding its platform beyond logistics. The startup has revenue but isn’t disclosing figures.
Watchtower has about 30 employees across offices in Bellevue, the Bay Area, Hawaii and the Washington, D.C., area, with more than a dozen in Bellevue. Iyer, who is based in San Francisco, said the company is moving to a larger Bellevue office and hopes to double its headcount. The Seattle area is a core focus for hiring, he said, because of its density of “very technical folks that maybe wanted to work on things with a little bit more mission impact.”
Recruits don’t need a military background, Iyer said. He noted that quite a few team members immigrated to the U.S. and see the work as a way to give back.
Watchtower is hiring for in-person roles in Bellevue that require U.S. citizenship, according to a LinkedIn post from Aghajanyan, including engineers for its simulation engine, distributed systems and machine learning work.
Watchtower joins a growing defense tech cluster in the Seattle area that includes:

• Overland AI, a University of Washington spinout that builds autonomous ground vehicles, raised $100 million this year and landed a Marine Corps production contract worth nearly $20 million.
• Shield AI picked Des Moines, Wash., to build its X-BAT autonomous fighter jet and expects 4,000 local workers by the early 2030s.
• Anduril has about 560 people in Bellevue and Seattle and sees a path to 1,000 engineers, though its expansion has drawn protests.
• Echodyne opened a $40 million drone-detection radar factory in Woodinville this summer.
• Exia Labs, led by former Army officer Jonathan Pan, is building AI software to speed up military planning and simulate missions.
• Microsoft and Amazon signed deals in May to put their AI systems on the Pentagon’s most classified networks.