Came across an article this morning on Engadget and found it interesting, and a little bemusing as well.
The US Military, specifically the Air Force, have been using the same computer since the 1970s that, with the use of 8-inch floppy disks, "could receive an order from the president to launch nuclear missiles from silos across the United States."
According to C4ISRNET.com, Lt. Jason Rossi has announced that the old floppy disk method was replaced in June 2019 by a "highly secure solid state digital storage solution". Interestingly, Lt. Rossi defends the use of the ancient SACCS system, "used by US nuclear forces to send emergency action messages from command centres to field forces" by explaining that it is virtually un-hackable. "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 said.
"In 2016, the Government Accountability Office wrote that SACCS runs on an IBM Series/1 computer dating from the 1970s and that the Defense Department planned “to update its data storage solutions, port expansion processors, portable terminals, and desktop terminals by the end of fiscal year 2017,” but it’s unclear whether those upgrades have occurred."
Personally, I find it fascinating that the military uses such a system to this day - although you wonder how much use it actually gets!
Sources:
C4ISRNET.com
Engadget
Techspot
@LinusTech @Slick
