Floppy disks are a technological remnant, much like the screech of a modem or a dot matrix printer. But while the general public has moved on to larger, more stable memory storage devices, the federal government has clung to the floppy. Now, more than 20 years after personal computers stopped including a disk drive, the Feds are phasing them out as well.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced last week that it planned to modernize more than 400 air traffic control systems that have, up until now, been running on floppy disks. The FAA says the changeover should be complete by the end of 2028.
“Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. “The greatest nation in the world deserves a state-of-the-art air traffic control system.”
Among the first facilities to receive the upgrade will be Atlantic City International Airport, Nashville International Airport, and New York State’s Greater Rochester International Airport. Data processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City will also receive priority upgrades.
Surprisingly, the FAA wasn’t the only federal institution to cling to the floppy disk for all these years. The Defense Department relied on floppy disks until 2019 for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Yes, really.
A 2016 report from the United States Government Accountability Office called out the Defense Department’s use of floppy disks, noting the Strategic Automated Command and Control System “runs on an IBM Series/1 Computer—a 1970s computing system— and uses 8-inch floppy disks.”