US nuclear force still uses floppy disks

[Super Nova]

I see why but this is ridiculous.

US nuclear force still uses floppy disks

The US nuclear weapons force still uses a 1970s-era computer system and 8-inch floppy disks, a government report has revealed.

The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon was one of several departments where "legacy systems" urgently needed to be replaced.

The report said taxpayers spent $61bn (£41bn) a year on maintaining ageing technologies.

It said that was three times more than the investment on modern IT systems.

The report said that the Department of Defence systems that co-ordinated intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers and tanker support aircraft "runs on an IBM Series-1 Computer - a 1970s computing system - and uses eight-inch floppy disks".

"This system remains in use because, in short, it still works," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt Col Valerie Henderson told the AFP news agency.

The floppy disk - what is it?

Hand loading diskette into computerImage copyright Eyewire Also called diskette or disk, it became popular in the 1970s
A standard 8in (200 mm) floppy disk had 237.25kB of storage space, enough for 15 seconds of audio
You would need more than 130,000 8-inch floppy disks to store 32GB of information - the size of an average memory stick
In the 1990s, the 3.5in floppy became the norm, with a 1.44MB of memory
Dell stopped making computers with inbuilt floppy disks in 2003. Very few manufacturers still make them
They are still in use in some 1990s technical equipment too valuable to scrap

"However, to address obsolescence concerns, the floppy drives are scheduled to be replaced with secure digital devices by the end of 2017."

She added: "Modernisation across the entire Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications enterprise remains ongoing."

The report said that the Pentagon was planning to fully replace the system by the end of 2020.

According to the report, the US treasury also needed to upgrade its systems, which it said was using "assembly language code - a computer language initially used in the 1950s and typically tied to the hardware for which it was developed".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36385839

[AnaTom]

decades out of date,

But very safe because of it. They say.

5 1/2 inch floppy to launch a big phallic ICBM? Something smells.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Not so long ago I had a lap top that was so old it had a floppy disc slot (had nothing to put in it though) and ran on XP, which apparently made it harder to hack than the latest and greatest.

[IQS.RLOW]

Most of this stuff was made when the silicone chip industry was young and as such many of the systems were created using Mil-spec components of which many are not available today

The same situation occurs with NASA and the shuttle tech. They were buying old 8080 processors of eBay to keep some legacy systems running.

It's cheaper to keep a working system running than to create a new one.

[AiA in Atlanta]

about the current use of outdated technology, many organizations still use fax machines for the security they provide

[freediver]

Sounds good to me. Do we really want a nuclear Armageddon because Windows tried to automatically upgrade to version 10?

[Lord Sir BigVic VSD and Bar]

Most of this stuff was made when the silicone chip industry was young and as such many of the systems were created using Mil-spec components of which many are not available today

The same situation occurs with NASA and the shuttle tech. They were buying old 8080 processors of eBay to keep some legacy systems running.

It's cheaper to keep a working system running than to create a new one.

Agree with that. One of our major defence projects was using Digital Computers and Severs running Unix 4.0g until very recently! RedHat Linux is the preferred O/S as you can customise it to your own needs. My first computer ran an 8080! Bugger of a programming language.

[IQS.RLOW]

Most of this stuff was made when the silicone chip industry was young and as such many of the systems were created using Mil-spec components of which many are not available today

The same situation occurs with NASA and the shuttle tech. They were buying old 8080 processors of eBay to keep some legacy systems running.

It's cheaper to keep a working system running than to create a new one.

Agree with that. One of our major defence projects was using Digital Computers and Severs running Unix 4.0g until very recently! RedHat Linux is the preferred O/S as you can customise it to your own needs. My first computer ran an 8080! Bugger of a programming language.

Most people would be surprised just how many critical public service applications such as water/sewerage/power are running on legacy systems that operate on the "if it aint broke, then dont fix it"

[Super Nova]

There are numerous system like this in government and private enterprise.

Christ, banks still run mainframes running Cobol and CICS/IMS systems. They do this because:
1. They work
2. They are critical to the business
3. They have lost the source code or knowledge on what they really do and how they work
4. The cost of change and the risk to the business is too high

The military do have a if it works... it works.

Upgrading systems to the latest and greatest is a luxury.

Military system are very expensive and have very high quality bars if they are used in the field. Some of their logistics systems, like procurement are just as bad or worse than in private enterprise.

They will upgrade when the need cost benefits are there or they represent a strategic disadvantage in war.