Pentagon Will Finally Get Rid of Floppy Disks—Next Year

The Pentagon says it will get rid of all floppy disks by 2017 and will modernize its system by 2020.

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Complex Original

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It may have taken a while, but the Pentagon is finally upgrading its system. The headquarter for the U.S. Department of Defense, charged with protecting the country, is just now getting rid of the last of the floppy disks. In 2016.

A precursor to USB drives, those antiquated plastic squares that first emerged in the late '60s are still being used on IBM computer models dating back to 1967. To stress, this is an agency responsible for coordinating the "operational functions of the nation's nuclear forces," as Vergepoints out. But don’t panic about someone hacking that outdated technology just yet. A new government report says they intend to fix all of that by phasing out the disks by 2017. Even better, the Pentagon plans on fully upgrading their systems by 2020.

While the solution is several years away, the good news is that the government has been getting by just fine with the outdated technology. The bad news is that it was costing you billions. Last year, taxpayers reportedly spent $61.2 billion maintain those old computers, which trumps the $19.2 billion that went to updating newer technology.  

So why did they hold onto those floppy disks for so long? Pentagon spokeswoman Valerie Henderson told AFP, "This system remains in use because, in short, it still works."

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