$2.5M Army Contract Puts Safe Pro Mine Detection on Anduril's Ghost-X

Army tank crews could get a drone that flags landmines, cluster munitions and ambush drones as it flies. The Army has hired a small Nasdaq-listed software company to prove that it works. Safe Pro Group (Nasdaq: SPAI) announced on Nov. 10, 2026 that it won a $2.5 million U.S. Army prime contract to run its threat-detection and mapping software on Anduril Industries' Ghost-X drone, with the goal of protecting M1 Abrams tanks and their crews. It is the company's first prime contract with the federal government.

The Army made the award under a Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) for Ground Threat Detection through Aerial Reconnaissance. Defense Daily called it a small award meant to "test, evaluate and demonstrate how the technology can protect M1 Abrams tanks and their crews on the battlefield."

What the $2.5 Million Ghost-X Award Buys

Safe Pro says the contract centers on its software running onboard the Ghost-X airframe itself, not on a ground station or in the cloud after a flight. According to the company, the software identifies and geolocates more than 150 types of explosive threats in real time, "including landmines, anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, and ambush FPV drones."

The company says the software processes live video at the tactical edge and streams threat data straight into Army networks, including the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) and Anduril's Lattice software. That connection matters for a tank formation. A detection only helps if it reaches the crew commander's screen fast enough to change the route.

The press release does not give a period of performance, a delivery schedule or the number of drones involved. Defense Daily's description of a test-and-demonstration effort suggests the $2.5 million funds proof of the concept rather than a fielded capability.

Why Ghost-X Is the Host Platform

The company says the Army has already selected Ghost-X for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions under its Medium Range Reconnaissance (MRR) program. Putting mine detection on an airframe the service has already chosen for reconnaissance likely lowers the integration burden and could give the software a route to units if the demonstration succeeds.

Anduril presented the work as an example of what a modular airframe is for. "Ghost-X is a highly modular platform that was built to rapidly leverage best-in-class sensing and software technologies," said Daniel Leighton, General Manager of Tactical Effects at Anduril Industries, in the release. "By adding Safe Pro's threat-detection technology onto Ghost-X, we're providing soldiers with faster, more reliable situational awareness at the tactical edge — directly supporting the Army's tank survivability and reconnaissance missions."

Under this arrangement Safe Pro holds the prime contract, with its software running on Anduril's drone. For Safe Pro, holding the prime position likely means direct contact with the Army rather than working through a larger integrator.

How Ukraine Battlefield Data Built Safe Pro's Case

Safe Pro's software, built on its Ground Truth technology and, in its onboard version, called Ground Truth Air, is trained on drone imagery collected in Ukraine. The company says its dataset includes "more than 3.2 million drone images and over 60,200 confirmed detections collected across 40,520+ acres in Ukraine."

Those numbers come from the company and have not been independently audited. They do help explain why the Army is interested. Ukraine has become a test case for how mines, unexploded ordnance and cheap first-person-view (FPV) attack drones can slow armored forces. Safe Pro's pitch is that a single onboard model can flag both kinds of threat during one reconnaissance pass.

Chairman and CEO Dan Erdberg framed the award as a turning point for the company. "We are honored to be awarded by the U.S. Army our first prime contract, a major milestone for SPAI that reflects our team's relentless work and dedication to building and fielding our novel SI-powered threat detection and mapping technology," Erdberg said. "We look forward to collaborating with Anduril to deliver our SI on Ghost-X drones to protect those who protect us all."

Does a First Prime Change Safe Pro's Standing With the Army?

The Army already knows the company's software. Defense Daily reported that the Army is evaluating Safe Pro's technology elsewhere, including as part of the Project Sandhills effort. The new award gives that relationship a formal contract of its own, with Safe Pro accountable for results.

At $2.5 million, the contract is small by Pentagon standards. Its value for Safe Pro is mostly about position. A prime award under a CSO can give a small company past performance it can point to, a direct contracting relationship with the Army, and a documented demonstration on a platform the Army has selected for its MRR program. Those are the assets a firm needs to compete for follow-on work.

What It Means for Contractors

This award shows the Army using Commercial Solutions Openings to bring in narrowly focused software firms as primes, even when the hardware comes from a much larger company. Contractors with mature detection, autonomy or sensor-fusion software should watch for CSO calls tied to specific operational problems such as ground threat detection, and should be ready to show results on platforms the Army has already chosen, like Ghost-X under the MRR program.

Integration is the main lesson. Safe Pro's announcement stressed more than detection capability: it also highlighted that threat data would flow into ATAK and Lattice. Vendors bidding on similar efforts should expect evaluators to ask how their data reaches existing Army networks, not just how well their algorithms perform in a lab.

Larger platform makers also have something to gain. Anduril's willingness to host a third-party payload on Ghost-X, as its quoted statement suggests, shows that modular airframes can attract specialized software partners and broaden the missions a platform can win. Drone makers competing for Army reconnaissance work may find that a stable of vetted software partners strengthens their own bids.

Finally, the terms are modest: a small dollar value, a test-and-demonstration scope and no announced production option. Contractors should treat awards like this as entry points. The bigger competition would come only if the Army decides to field the capability more widely.