Bridger Aerospace Group Holdings, Inc.

Please stand by. Your meeting is about to begin. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's Bridger Aerospace first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during our question and answer session. To register to ask a question at any time, please press star 1 on your telephone. Please note today's call is being recorded and I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Ms. Anne Hayes, Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Hayes, please go ahead.

Thank you, Beau, and welcome everyone to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today is Chief Executive Officer Sam Davis. Before we begin, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that during the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements, as described in our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings we make with the SEC from time to time. Except to the extent otherwise required by law, we undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement. In addition, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. Please refer to our earnings release for the calculation of these measures and the appropriate GAAP reconciliation. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Sam.

Thank you, Anne, and welcome, everyone. 2026 began with a clear focus on readiness, ensuring our fleet, our technology, and our teams are fully prepared for what we expect to be a very active wildfire season. I'm extremely proud of the team and their tireless focus on the mission to save lives and property, focusing on readiness year-round to answer the call and respond to fires quickly when it matters most. The devastation of fires only continues to increase and Bridger prides itself on its ability to find them, and extinguish them quickly and effectively before these fires become the next avoidable headline. Overall, our first quarter results were in line with internal expectations and our full year plan, reflecting the quarterly nature of our business and the timing of revenue recognition. Revenue of $8.5 million was lower year over year, primarily due to non-recurring return to service work on our Spanish scoopers in 2025 and our early deployment activity last year in January related to the Palisades Fire in California. First, I'd like to start with an update of some highlights in the first quarter. For the first time in company history, we began our multi-mission aircraft contract on February 1st and dispatched to support heightened fire activity in Oklahoma. We also saw our earliest dispatch of our air attack aircraft to Texas in February for command and control missions. This early mobilization is consistent with what we are seeing more broadly across the market. Fire activity beginning later, lasting longer, and requiring more proactive engagement from our federal and state partners. During the quarter, we continued to make progress expanding and enhancing our fleet, including the modification of additional surveillance aircraft. These aircraft, which were added to the fleet at the end of 2025, will have unique configurations that introduce new intelligence capabilities into wildfire response in 2026. and will continue to drive the innovation of our multi-mission platforms. Our current sensor-enhanced aircraft, which are already deployed, have flown millions of acres in early 2026 to support real-time mapping, live streaming, and situational awareness for fire teams across multiple states, from Nebraska to Florida and Arizona to North Carolina. We are seeing rapid adoption of our sensor aircraft to detect fires, and guide initial attack with our hours flown on our sensor planes nearly doubling Q1 of this year versus last. This early and broad-based deployment highlights both the increasing demand for our services and the growing importance of our technology-enhanced capabilities, particularly in supporting initial attack and real-time decision-making on the ground. Safety is paramount to everything we do, and we believe every hour spent safely fighting fires as an extension of how we focus on preparation. In the first quarter, we invested in fleet readiness, including winter maintenance and flight training. Through focusing on the intensity of the fire year and not the fire season, our newly staggered maintenance cycle ensures we have aircraft from each mission set ready to deploy within hours. This spring, we maximized our time infield, training for the firefighting operations, and using extensive time in both classroom and on the wing. With our readiness and specialized fleet, we are prepared to fulfill our mission to intercept and extinguish fires before they can bring widespread devastation. As a part of these efforts, we are proud to have qualified two new scooper captains and two initial attack captains, bringing us to a total of four initial attack captains. The addition of these initial attack captains will allow us to remain out longer in Q4 and dispatch earlier in Q1 next year. From an organizational perspective, we continue to build the leadership team required to support our growth. The recent additions of a chief operating officer and general counsel bring significant operational and public company experience and will help ensure we scale the business with a continued focus on safety, execution, and governance. Now let's turn to the outlook on fire conditions and an update on federal legislation. Across the nation, states are seeing record high temperatures, low snowpack, and extensive droughts. For the entire U.S., March was the warmest it's been on record in over 130 years. These environmental factors point to elevated fire risk, and importantly, the below average year in 2025 suggests that we have not yet seen the full impact of its fuel buildup. We see multiple signals that heightened fire conditions are starting to converge. Just last week, the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rawlins, issued a memo directing the U.S. Forest Service to heighten national wildfire readiness in the face of historic lack of winter snowpack predicted above normal temperatures and drier than normal conditions across the U.S. She even went so far as to state that large wildfires are predicted to threaten homes, communities, and natural resources this summer. In addition to the Secretary's comments, wildland fire managers have similar interests and more robust wildfire response and increased preparedness. Within the President's budget, the Administration is explicit about the need for the consolidation of wildfire programs between the USDA and the DOI. In addition to urging Conaghris to streamline fire suppression efforts, they've also advocated for the creation of a new Wildfire Intelligence Center under the new, unified U.S. Wildland Fire Service. The Wildfire Intelligence Center will be focused on incorporating technology to assess and model wildfires, inform rapid response, coordinate suppression, promote fuel management, and advance recovery and rehabilitation. With Bridger's unique services, we're well-positioned to not only meet the directives with the most effective suppression and surveillance aircraft, but also to introduce our leading-edge technology solution, IGNIS, which I'll discuss more shortly. Through these shifting environmental conditions and the notable devastation from megafires like the Palisades and Smokehouse Creek fires, we've seen a move toward progressive wildfire management at the federal level to streamline agency coordination, commit to longer-term contracts, and proactively station and use aviation resources. We're continuing to monitor progress in active legislation regarding the consolidation of these agencies. Let me now provide a quick update on IGNIS and FMS. With our software platform IGNIS, we've been able to live stream our fire surveillance into mobile and desktop environments. In Q1 alone, the aviation module of IGNIS has been used by emergency operation centers, pilots, and ground firefighters. In Q2, we are officially launching the IGNIS platform as a part of our aviation capabilities and introducing a new way for the industry to access an entire fire data ecosystem in one place. Our ability to be first to market and introduce leading edge solutions into firefighting is due in part to the capabilities of our in-house engineering division, FMS Aerospace. They continue to not only contribute to the modifications of our internal fleet, but also in the defense and commercial contract work they pursue. With the recent increase to the defense budget, we feel we're well positioned with our awarded programs being able to grow in existing capacity. and pursue strategic new work on larger IDIQs that are a good fit for our integrated services. We are currently listed on seven IDIQs covering various military branches. Much of the defense budget is focused on the upgrade of aviation assets and the advancement of sensor technology, both of which we specialize in. While the first quarter reflects the planned slower revenue winter maintenance period of the wildfire industry, the underlying fundamentals remain strong. Demand continues to build and Bridger is entering the 2026 season with greater scale, enhanced capabilities with higher return profiles and a broader operational footprint than ever before. We are focused on executing through the upcoming fire season and translating this positioning into a year of strong growth and performance. I'll turn the call back over to Anne and she can go through our financials in more detail.