The US Air Force has quietly replaced the infamous floppy disks it was using to manage the country’s nuclear arsenal with what sources described as a “highly-secure solid state digital storage solution.”
The switch reportedly took place in June this year, according to defense news site C4ISRNET, citing Lt. Col. Jason Rossi, commander of the Air Force’s 595th Strategic Communications Squadron.
Lt. Col. Rossi’s unit is in charge of maintaining the US Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS).
SACCS is the communications system the US uses to relay messages and keep tabs on its nuclear capabilities, such as nuclear bombers, nuclear submarines, and nuclear depos housing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The system was created in 1968 and has been running for nearly 50 years on top of an IBM Series/1 mainframe, using 8-inch floppy disks as its storage medium.
A CBS “60 Minutes” investigation that aired in the spring of 2014 brought this old but crucial piece of machinery to the limelight.
US government officials sought answers following the…
