AVENTURA, Fla., May 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Safe Pro Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SPAI) (Safe Pro or the Company), a developer of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled defense, security, and situational awareness solutions, today announced the launch of a new Government contract capture team led by former Anduril Senior Business Development Director and Retired U.S. Army Officer, Mr. Brian Mack, who was named as the Company's new Chief Growth Officer ("CGO"). Mr. Mack takes on the CGO role following his tenure on Safe Pro's Strategic Advisory Board.

As Chief Growth Officer, Mr. Mack will build and lead Safe Pro's U.S. government contract capture team with a focus on accelerating growth across Army and joint mission areas. As part of this effort, the Company has appointed recently retired United States Special Operations Command's (USSOCOM) Acquisition Executive, Mr. Benjamin Chitty, as Vice President of Government Growth. The Company believes these appointments will support its efforts to capture U.S. government revenue and contract awards over time

Mr. Mack brings a strong record in defense capture, growth strategy, and Army modernization, including a recent executive role at Anduril Industries, where he led the successful capture of the U.S. Army's $100 million Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) contract with a highly skilled team. Across multiple organizations, he has built and scaled $2 billion-plus Army-focused pipelines aligned to critical mission priorities. Mr. Chitty brings more than 29 years of combined military and civilian experience to Safe Pro including 27 years of direct support to U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF). Most recently, Mr. Chitty served as Deputy Director and Senior Program Manager of the Joint Acquisition Task Force within USSOCOM SOF Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics center. Throughout his career, Mr. Chitty has held progressively senior engineering and program management roles within USSOCOM's Science & Technology Directorate, where he directed strategic engagement across Department of Defense and Department of Energy laboratories, DARPA, Intelligence Community partners, academia and international SOF science and technology communities, and managed multiple research portfolios totaling over $120 million. Earlier in his career, Mr. Chitty served as Program Manager for Aircraft Survivability Equipment at the Technology Applications Program Office, overseeing more than $650 million across multiple programs of record. In that capacity, he led electronic warfare and survivability programs across multiple spectral and acoustic domains for special operations aviation platforms. Mr. Chitty began his career with eleven years in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Mr. Dan Erdberg, Chairman and CEO of Safe Pro Group Inc., said, "Launching our growth team is a key milestone in our strategic plan and we are proud to have Brian and Ben, both decorated warriors and acquisition subject matter experts, now leading our government business development team. We have assembled a nimble, highly seasoned leadership team that is mission-driven to accelerate the fielding of our patented AI capabilities and align our capture strategy with rapid acquisition pipelines and defense industry partnerships."

"I'm proud to join the Company's executive team and lead Safe Pro's growth as we rapidly deliver differentiated AI capabilities across a broad and expanding customer base. I recently witnessed firsthand the decisive edge Safe Pro technology provided to Soldiers during a live-fire exercise—delivering precise, real-time decision advantage to commanders in complex environments. Experiencing the operational impact of our AI in a maneuver mission reinforced my conviction that Safe Pro is uniquely positioned to scale, win, and define this category," commented Mr. Mack. "I wish to officially welcome Benjamin to our Growth team and look forward to building upon the significant progress Safe Pro has made as we seek to deploy our novel IP to enhance battlefield situational awareness."

The Company's Safe Pro Object Threat Detection (SPOTD) AI platform analyzes imagery and video from virtually any drone to automatically detect and classify explosive threats and other objects of interest. The platform converts raw video into high-resolution 2D/3D geospatial models that can be rapidly shared to support operational decision-making in defense, security, and humanitarian missions. SPOTD is capable of identifying more than 150 types of landmines and UXO, enabling scalable situational awareness across large, high-risk areas. SPOTD has been deployed in active operational environments in Ukraine for nearly three years and is supported by a growing proprietary dataset comprising over 2.6 million analyzed images, more than 47,800 identified threats, and coverage of approximately 32,800 acres.

For more information about Safe Pro's real-world landmine and UXO detections, visit: https://safeproai.com/landmine-detections/. Information about Safe Pro Group, its subsidiaries, and technologies, please visit https://safeprogroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X.

About Safe Pro Group Inc.

Safe Pro Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SPAI) is a mission-driven technology company delivering AI-enabled security and defense solutions. Through cutting-edge platforms like SPOTD, Safe Pro provides advanced situational awareness tools for defense, humanitarian, and homeland security applications globally. It is a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions specializing in drone imagery processing, leveraging commercially available "off-the-shelf" drones with its proprietary machine learning and computer vision technology to enable rapid identification of explosives threats, providing a much safer and more efficient alternative to traditional human-based analysis methods. Built on a cloud-based ecosystem and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Safe Pro Group's scalable platform is targeting multiple markets that include commercial, government, law enforcement and humanitarian sectors where its Safe Pro AI software, Safe-Pro USA protective gear and Airborne Response drone-based services can work in synergy to deliver safety and operational efficiency. For more information on Safe Pro Group Inc., please visit https://safeprogroup.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements relate to future events, future expectations, plans and prospects. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, Safe Pro's ability to secure new contracts with the U.S. Army and government and the acceptance of its solutions by potential government, military and humanitarian organizations. Although Safe Pro Group believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Safe Pro Group has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,'' ''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including market and other conditions. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth under Item 1A. in the Company's most recently filed Form 10-K and updated from time to time in the Company's Form 10-Q filings and in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), copies of which may be obtained from the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of its date. Safe Pro Group undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Media Relations for Safe Pro Group Inc.:

media@safeprogroup.com

Investor Contact:

Ankit Hira, Managing Director

Solebury Strategic Communications for Safe Pro Group Inc.

spai@soleburystrat.com

Safe Pro Launches New Growth Team Led by Brian Mack as Chief Growth Officer and Benjamin Chitty as VP of Government Growth