It took until 2019 for the US to give up the 8” floppies that ran its nuclear launch systems.
A 60 Minutes tour of the US nuclear control center in 2014 gave the public a glimpse behind the curtain of how the defense sector works. It also revealed that in the event that the US president ordered the launch of a nuclear warhead, the command would rely on 8-inch floppy disks and a 1970s era IBM Series/1 mainframe computer.
Rossi told C4isrnet that though the overall computer system is old, its age provides security.
“You can’t hack something that doesn’t have an IP address. It’s a very unique system – it is old and it is very good,” Rossi told the publication.
People are still using floppies?
AFAIK there are long term science programs that are using archaic computer systems so probably yes.
I’d like to read about those. Can you link some?
Yup. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/german-navy-still-uses-8-inch-floppy-disks-working-on-emulating-a-replacement/
It took until 2019 for the US to give up the 8” floppies that ran its nuclear launch systems.
https://www.cnet.com/science/us-military-retires-floppy-disks-used-by-nuclear-weapons-system/