German Navy still uses 8-inch floppy disks, working on emulating a replacement

The German Navy is working on modernizing its Brandenburg-class F123 frigates, which means ending their reliance on 8-inch floppy disks.

The F123 frigates use floppy disks for their onboard data acquisition (DAQ) systems, as noted by Tom’s Hardware on Thursday. Augen geradeaus!, a German defense and security policy blog by journalist Thomas Wiegold, notes that DAQs are important for controlling frigates, including power generation, “because the operating parameters have to be recorded,” per a Google translation. The ships themselves specialize in anti-submarine warfare and air defense.

Earlier this month, Augen geradeaus! spotted a tender for service published June 21 by Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) to modernize the German Navy’s four F123 frigates. The ships were commissioned from October 1994 to December 1996. As noted by German IT news outlet Heise, the continued use of 8-inch floppies despite modern alternatives being available for years “has to do with the fact that established systems are considered more reliable.”

Rather than overhauling the entire DAQ, the government plans to develop and integrate an onboard emulation system to replace the floppy disks. This differs from the approach the US Air Force took. In 2019, the US military branch replaced the 8-inch floppies for storing data used for operating its intercontinental ballistic missile command, control, and communications network with SSDs.

The BAAINBw hired Saab for F123 updates. In July 2021, Saab announced winning a contract to “deliver and integrate new naval radars and fire control directors for and in the German Navy’s” F123s, with the work entailing “a new combat management system in order to completely overhaul the system currently in use on the F123, allowing a low risk integration of the new naval radars and fire control capabilities.” The Swedish company said the deal was worth about 4.6 billion SEK (about $436,748,840).

Per the BAAINBw’s tender, the replacement of the floppy disks is expected to start on October 1 and end July 31, 2025. F123 frigates are supposed to stay in service until F126s are available, which is expected to be between 2028 and 2031.

Further details, like how exactly Saab will replace the floppies, are confidential. As pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, there are various options for floppy disk emulation, such as devices from brands like Gotek that are popular among enthusiasts.

Floppies keep floppin’

For the typical person, floppy disks are obsolete, but government bodies with already established and successfully running systems in place have been much slower to abandon the old storage medium. Besides the German Navy and US Air Force, Japan only last month officially stopped using floppy disks in governmental systems. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to use 5¼-inch floppies to help run San Francisco’s Muni Metro light rail system until 2030.

Various industries also continue using floppy disks to help run machines that have long been used, as Chuck E. Cheese did for animatronics as recently as 2023 and professional embroiderers do with embroidery machines.