The German Navy is not yet ready to completely abandon floppy disks. Its solution: emulate them

Although it may come as a surprise, floppy disks still play an important role in certain tasks today. Some Boeing 747s receive navigation data updates via this storage media. Something similar happens with the trains in San Francisco. But this particular club also has other members around the world. Today we are going to talk about the German Navy.

The Brandenburg-class frigates are a very important asset for the defence of the aforementioned European country. We are talking about four ships that were put into service between 1994 and 1996, and which are in the process of being updated. As Marine-Forum explainsThis is a “complete” upgrade that includes the replacement of weapons systems, as well as the improvement of communication and command systems.

Goodbye to floppy disks

However, refurbishing ships that are around 30 years old is no easy task. Saab, the Swedish contractor entrusted with this mission, must work within certain technological limits. The components that enable the operation of the frigates will be partially adaptedand this includes a half-hearted farewell to floppy disks, which will no longer be physically necessary.

The Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Service Support of the Bundeswehr has published a tender notice for the “development and integration on board of an emulator storage system to replace the floppy disk drive”. We are talking about a procedure that affects the Brandenburg class frigates that are in the process of being renovated.

The military specialist Thomas Wiegold explains that diskettes are important for the monitoring section of the frigates. They are the means by which the data is recorded. operating parameters related to propulsion or power generation. Doing away with floppy disks altogether would mean having to replace monitoring systems as well.

This is where emulation comes into play. The frigates will be able to retain some of the current hardware, but their crew will no longer have to handle floppy disks. We are not only talking about an outdated storage medium, but also a rather fragile one. Until the renovation is complete, however, the floppy disks will remain a part of these four German frigates.

Images | Torsten Batge (CC BY-SA 3.0) | Freepik | Darkone (CC BY-SA 2.5)

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