In a surprising revelation, the German Navy has announced plans to phase out floppy disks from its warships, ending a 30-year reliance on the now-antiquated storage device. These disks, with a meager 1.44 MB storage capacity, are still used for official purposes in a few nations despite their limited storage capacity by today’s standards.
The German Navy employs floppy drives on its four Brandenburg class F123 frigates. According to a German news outlet, these will soon be replaced by a modern emulation-based solution. The frigates’ data acquisition (DAQ) systems, which are integral for controlling various ship functions including power plants, have depended on floppy disk drives since the ships’ commissioning in the mid-1990s.
In a similar move, Japan announced in January 2024 that it would abolish the requirement for companies to provide additional data on floppies or CD-Roms. The F123 frigates’ DAQ systems record essential operating parameters, crucial for their anti-submarine and air defense warfare operations.
Despite modern alternatives, the German Navy has persisted with these outdated floppies due to the perceived reliability of established systems. Augen geradeaus reports that instead of overhauling the entire DAQ system, the government plans to develop an onboard emulation system to replace the floppy disks. Recently, the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) signed a contract with Saab for new naval radars and combat management systems for the F123 frigates. However, the DAQ system upgrade involving floppy disks is separate and not handled by Saab.
It is projected that floppy disk replacement will start on October 1 and be finished by July 31, 2025. According to ArsTechnica, the F123 frigates are anticipated to be in service until 2028–2031, when the newer F126 frigates become available. In a similar vein, the US military switched out its intercontinental ballistic missile command system’s 8-inch floppies for SSDs in 2019.
In Japan, about 1,900 government procedures required data submissions on floppies or CD-Roms. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) is now abandoning this outdated practice, aiming to foster a digital society by eliminating references to obsolete media and adopting contemporary terms like “electromagnetic recording media.” This initiative is part of a broader effort by the Digital Agency to modernize regulations and promote digital transformation across various ministries.