You’d be forgiven for thinking that floppy disks had long gone the way of the dodo, but actually their use is more common than you might imagine - but perhaps not for much longer.
Back in January 2024, the Japanese government said it would be taking action to abandon a decades-old practice of insisting businesses must submit supplementary data on floppies (or CD-Roms). Following that, in July 2024, Japan’s Digital Agency declared it had successfully abolished 1,034 regulations governing the use of floppy disks. Taro Kono, Japan’s Minister for Digital Transformation and the head of the Digital Agency, announced grandly, “We have won the war on floppy disks on June 28!”
Now, Augen Geradeaus reports the German Navy is looking to follow suit and replace the floppy drives used on its four Brandenburg class F123 frigates with a modern emulated solution. These anti-submarine frigates were commissioned between 1994 and 1996, when floppy disks were the height of storage. Diskette 1 floppy media can store between 242,944 bytes and 1.2MB (depending on the version) and is used in frigates’ data acquisition systems.
Emulation battle stations
Saab recently signed a contract with the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) to deliver and fit new naval radars and fire control directors for the F123 German frigates, including a new combat management system. The data acquisition system, for which the floppy drives are used, is a separate part of the upgrade process and won't be handled by Saab.
Augen Geradeaus reports the system "is an essential part of controlling the actual ship functions of a frigate. Although it has nothing to do with the weapon systems, it is important for controlling the drive or power generation because the operating parameters have to be recorded."
In order to avoid replacing the entire measuring technology, the Navy has the choice of leaving the existing storage media in place or finding an emulation replacement that acts as if it were a floppy disk drive. BAAINBw is currently looking for a supplier for the latter option.
The persistence of floppy disk use highlights the challenge of modernizing legacy systems in critical operations. While new technologies offer vast improvements, the cost and complexity of overhauling entrenched systems can often be prohibitive. Emulation solutions provide a middle ground, allowing for incremental updates without the need for extensive hardware changes.
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