Analysis & Innovation fuels decisions to accelerate change

1st Lt. Adam Treece, 56th OSS intelligence readiness chief assigned to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona and Wylie Standage Beier, ASU electrical engineering PhD student, brief about their Spark Tank submission the Low Cost Threat Emitter Replication Jan. 10, 2020. The Arizona-based team created a low-cost, mobile threat emitter system to be used in training for fifth-generation aircraft. The emitters replicate surface-to-air missile systems equipped with a radar designed to track, shoot and guide a missile to a target. Spark Tank, which began in 2017, is an annual competition in which Airmen are encouraged to submit their innovative ideas to improve Air Force processes and products. Air Education and Training Command’s A9’s Innovation Advancement Division, A9A, serves as the primary interface between the command’s innovators and AETC and is responsible for iChallenge, AETC’s version of Spark Tank, and AETC’s Spark Tank submissions.