German Navy warships finally ditch floppy disks after 30 years

It might be hard to believe, but floppy disks are still in use for official purposes in a few nations. The device can hold a meager 1.44 MB storage capacity (by today’s standards). That hardly has enough memory to hold a three-minute MP3 audio file.

The German Navy still uses floppy drives on its four Brandenburg class F123 frigates. Now, according to a German news outlet, it plans to replace them with a modern emulation-based solution as part of phasing out the outdated storage device.

The frigates’ data acquisition (DAQ) systems rely heavily on floppy disk drives, which have been in service since the ships’ mid-1990s commissioning.

In a comparable development in recent times, Japan announced in January 2024 that it would abolish the long-standing policy of requiring companies to provide additional data on floppies (or CD-Roms).

Combat system overhaul

The F123 frigates use floppy disks for their onboard DAQ systems, which are crucial for controlling various ship functions, including power plants. These systems record essential operating parameters. The F123 frigates specialize in anti-submarine and air defense warfare.

Despite the availability of modern alternatives, the German Navy has continued to use these outdated floppies because established systems are considered more reliable.

According to Augen geradeaus, instead of overhauling the entire data acquisition system, the government plans to develop and integrate an onboard emulation system to replace the floppy disks.

The German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) recently signed a contract with Saab to deliver and install new naval radars, fire control directors, and combat management systems for the F123 frigates.

However, the data acquisition system that uses the floppy drives is a separate part of the upgrade process and will not be handled by Saab.

The replacement of the floppy disks is anticipated to begin on October 1 and conclude on July 31, 2025. F123 frigates are projected to remain in service until 2028–2031 when F126s are anticipated to become available, reports ArsTechnica.

Digital transition initiatives

In 2019, the US military replaced the 8-inch floppies in its intercontinental ballistic missile command, control, and communications network with SSDs.

Surprisingly, the Strategic Automated Command and Control technology, or SACCS, was an antiquated technology that utilized floppy disks. It enabled command centers to notify forces in the field about nuclear activity in an emergency.

Currently, the US military transmits messages via a new technology rather than floppy disks. Though they haven’t discussed the specifics for understandable reasons.

In the East, there were about 1,900 official government procedures in Japan requiring businesses to submit supplementary data on floppies or CD-Roms. However, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is now in the process of abandoning this outdated practice.

At the beginning of 2024, METI issued a “Ministerial Ordinance to Amend Some of the METI Ordinances for Promoting Regulatory Reforms to Foster a Digital Society,” aiming to review and update rules that mandate the use of obsolete media like floppy disks.

The initiative is part of a broader effort by the Digital Agency to review analog regulations (digital principles) across various ministries.

According to TechRadar, the current law not only mandates the use of outdated recording media but also leaves ambiguity about the permissibility of cloud-based actions, such as creating and saving documents online.

To modernize the regulations, METI plans to eliminate any references to specific media types like “floppy disk” or “CD-Rom” and replace them with more contemporary terms such as “electromagnetic recording media.”