Challenges of certification and integration of new hardware into legacy avionics architectures

Military aircraft mission system are subject to continuous modifications due to obsolescence removal or upgrades. Additionally to user and integration requirements, formalized safety considerations have become a major driver in today's avionic system design. They are imposed by the necessary compliance to international standards in the context of achieving a later certification for the developed hard- and software. The conceptual approach to introduce a new electronic unit into the avionics system architecture of a legacy military combat aircraft is described. Within the context of a military certification environment the focus is on the alignment of the design to user requirements as well as according to current safety standards. To achieve this, the system design uses a functional hazard analysis and abstract system description in order to derive a detailed design that will meet certification needs.