Assume that a ridiculous amount of effort went into designing and testing this device, and that this 8in drive is connected to devices that will not have an sd-

Assume that a ridiculous amount of effort went into designing and testing this device, and that this 8in drive is connected to devices that will not have an sd-card reader or USB controller available for $5 off eBay. It might just be cheaper to buy 100 8in drives for 10k each, instead of upgrading the control systems to use thumb-drives. You'll also have to do all the paperwork to change documentatino from "insert Top-Secret launch diskette into drive" to "put Top-Secret micro-sd card into the top-secret-launch-diskette-substitude-reader-assembly (TSLDSRA)".