The evolution of the Global Hawk and MALD avionics systems

Ryan Aeronautical out of necessity, in conjunction with developing its RPV's and UAV's, gained experience in the design of analog and digital flight control systems, airborne digital computers, real-time software design and avionics integration. Ryan initiated an IR&D (Independent Research and Development) to look into the design for a high altitude long endurance UAV, and out of this IR&D grew the effort that was to become the Global Hawk Reconnaissance System. The avionics system for the Global Hawk air vehicle had to meet a reliability goal that necessitated the use of a dual redundant flight control system. During the same time frame, Ryan also received a contract to develop a very low cost air launched decoy. The Miniature Air Launched Decoy or MALD program developed an avionics system that was extremely low cost, and relied heavily on off the shelf components that utilized the PC-104 standard.