The German Navy needs a serious upgrade for its fleet of submarine frigates, and we’re not talking about a digital upload or some kind of software patch. The country’s fleets of submarine frigates have been operating on outdated 8-inch floppy disks since they were put into service in the 1990s.
Now the German Navy is trying to find a way to replace the aging disk system that is “vital to the operation of its Brandenburg-class F123 frigates,” it said Tom’s Hardware.
Replacing the floppy disk system won’t be an easy task. These disks control almost everything on the ships, from airflow systems to power generation. Does the German Navy still use Palm Pilots to organize its code words and Tamagotchis to train its recruits in marine conservation?
Saab has been responsible for maintaining Germany’s F123 frigate fleet since 2021, according to a press release. The frigates are designed to hunt submarines, so they’re also getting upgrades to their weapons and weapons control systems. Hopefully they’ll throw in one of those cool, fancy night-panel dashboards for free, too.
Many government agencies and programs have used the floppy disk system for decades, long after the old-fashioned computer storage system fell out of common use. Japanese digital agency announced earlier this month that it has eliminated the use of floppy disks in its government systems. Does this mean that somewhere in the world a nuclear government agency is still using those Commodore cassette tapes to store its most vital data? Let’s hope those drives aren’t tied to access to nuclear weapons… as if they were in the US.
