German Navy still uses 8-inch floppy disks, working on emulating a replacement
The German Navy is upgrading its F123 frigates by replacing outdated floppy disks with an emulation system developed by Saab. The modernization includes new radars and is expected to finish by July 31, 2025.
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The German Navy is in the process of modernizing its Brandenburg-class F123 frigates by replacing their outdated 8-inch floppy disks used in onboard data acquisition systems. These systems are crucial for controlling the frigates, especially for functions like power generation. Despite the availability of modern alternatives, the Navy has stuck with floppies due to their perceived reliability. Instead of a complete overhaul, the plan is to develop and integrate an onboard emulation system to replace the floppy disks. Saab has been contracted for the updates, including the integration of new naval radars and fire control directors. The replacement process is expected to start on October 1 and conclude by July 31, 2025. The F123 frigates will remain in service until the newer F126s are available, estimated between 2028 and 2031. The transition away from floppy disks is a trend seen not only in the German Navy and US Air Force but also in other sectors like government agencies and industries where legacy systems are deeply entrenched.
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14 comments„Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht. Das haben wir noch nie anders gemacht. Da könnte ja jeder kommen.“
In English, this roughly means:
"We have always done it this way. We have never done it differently. Anyone could come along and say that."
That explains a lot.
Fax machines are still widely used, particularly in public administration and larger organizations in general.
The preposterous as well as appalling argument often heard in favour of this is that "fax is more secure than email" and somehow doesn't put privacy and the sacred German "data protection" at risk (because said data protection seemingly on applies to digital stuff).
Famously - or rather notoriously, during the pandemic local German health authorities faxed case numbers and other relevant data to federal authorities, which led to massively delayed response times and a general unavailability of dependable, actionable data.
[1] https://sourceforge.net/projects/aspeqt. Better maintained fork: https://github.com/RespeQt/RespeQt
Replacement could begin by emulating the 8 inch floppy drive's electrical interface and attaching a modern system.
The storage media should probably be some sort of flash memory rated for military use; I don't anticipate the size as an issue, nor most of the other specs.
The most critical factor is selecting a storage media that's intended for production and support for the next 50 years, since it seems clear these systems will _never_ be updated again.
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