At my last squadron, we took a -60 down to a Garmin installer and he looked over our system. He said it could have integrated a Garmin system (I'm not sure which one but it would have been IFR capable) for the cost of what it would normally cost in the real world. Obviously Navair would have had to have their chop on it, which I'm sure would have increased the budget by at least 3 times.
In the late 80's and into the 90's Prowlers suffered from an ADI failure with no off flag which is suspected to have been causal to at least 4 jets lost with all hands. NAVAIR did an admirable job getting the EFIS pushed through using a commercial system. I believe it was one being used in a Lear but don't quote me. Alas, it wasn't designed to deal with that much glass and we had lots and lots of overheating problems once we left the nice cool Pac NW. Changing some procedures helped (check the displays then turn them off until t/o, always set to lowest illum, etc) but that didn't always help. Left us in some pickles and though it's no longer a worry I don't recommend trying to shoot a night no-gyro PAR approach to Roosey Roads in the goo. That have no mad skilz.
So, I always keep in mind the useful engineering corollary; You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick two.
