When it comes to defense, all operations require a high degree of coordination and processing. As a result, airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) has become a crucial component of military activity. In order to maintain stealth and avoid detection, ISR missions are forced to fly at extremely high altitudes. These altitudes present a number of environmental obstacles such as extreme temperature ranges or fluctuating atmospheric pressure – most of which cannot normally be handled by commercially available components. However, because of rising costs and time delays, developing application-specific hardware is becoming less feasible. Using a real-life case study, this white paper explores in great detail a scenario in which Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components were able to be used for a critical, extreme environment application. Check out this report, and see if cost-saving commercial COTS components can possibly be utilized for your specific needs.