{"id":37116,"date":"2018-05-11T18:47:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T18:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/05\/11\/air-force-deployed-mysterious-experimental-drone-to-afghanistan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:59:05","slug":"air-force-deployed-mysterious-experimental-drone-to-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/05\/11\/air-force-deployed-mysterious-experimental-drone-to-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force deployed mysterious drone to Afghanistan to catch terrorists planting roadside bombs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Data from an investigation spearheaded by Defense News sister brand Military Times revealed that an experimental, homegrown reconnaissance drone called \u201cSilver Fang\u201d was deployed by the Air Force <\/a>to Afghanistan during the mid-2010s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very little information about the Silver Fang unmanned aerial system<\/a> is available online. But it emerged within data on aviation mishaps<\/a> obtained by Military Times, painting a fascinating portrait of a little-known technology, and revealing for the first time the extent of Silver Fang testing in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSilver Fang was an Air Force Research Laboratory program that provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability based on a Tier II, runway-independent small unmanned aerial system,\u201d said Daryl Mayer, a spokesman for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where AFRL is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A photo of the aircraft featured in an August 2015 AFRL presentation<\/a> shows a fixed-wing, rail-launched plane with a sensor ball attached at the aft of the aircraft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An slide from an Air Force Research Laboratory presentation dated from August 2015 shows the Silver Fang drone, which was deployed to Afghanistan. (Air Force Research Laboratory)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to the AFRL-sponsored website Launch Stories<\/a>, Silver Fang is a derivative of the Silver Fox UAS originally developed by BAE Systems\u2019 unmanned technologies division, which had been bought by Sensintel and has now become part of Raytheon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was originally used in theater to help find terrorists who were placing improvised explosive devices along convoy routes \u2014 a mission that it was uniquely suited for due to its size, which was large enough to carry significant payloads while staying small enough to operate very quietly while in flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Silver Fox already hosted an electro-optical, infrared sensor, but AFRL added a radio frequency sensor with a wide field of view to help cue the EO\/IR sensor and more quickly identify IEDs, the Launch Stories piece noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silver Fang\u2019s experience in Afghanistan raises interesting questions. How often was it being operated? How successful was it in finding IEDs? Did the continued comms link and propulsion problems have anything to do with why the program was seemingly canceled? Or was it funding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense News contacted Air Force Research Laboratory in the hopes of getting answers to these questions. The organization was able to confirm the existence of the aircraft, but declined to comment further on its past activities for classification reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\t