AFISRA debuts one-of-a-kind cryptologic display

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123273550

By Wayne Amann
Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency
Public Affairs
9/30/2011

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- The Air Force Intelligence, 
Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency now has the trifecta of 
cryptologic machines on display.

Working in concert with the National Security Agency's National 
Cryptologic Center Museum at Fort Meade, Md., the AFISRA History Office 
received on loan an M-125 Fialka, which is a 10-rotor cipher machine 
developed by the Soviet Union in the late 1950's and used during the 
Cold War until that country's collapse in 1991.

The Fialka, which in English means "violent," was unveiled at a ceremony 
Sept. 22 in the AFISRA Heritage Center here. It joined Nazi Germany's 
Enigma and the United States' Sigaba, as the only known co-located 
display of the three encryption/decryption devices.

"I didn't find any museum, not the Imperial War Museum, not the 
Smithsonian, that had these three machines on display," said Gabe 
Marshall, from the AFISRA History Office. "It's safe to say the troika 
of encryption devices we have can only be found in a private 
collection."

The new Fialka display also features unique accessories in two glass 
enclosed cases: a Soviet parade uniform, an AK-47 assault weapon and 
Soviet flight gear.

Senior Master Sgt. Benjamin Jones, from the AFISRA History Office, 
designed and built the display, which took eight months to complete.

"We overcame a lot of setbacks," Jones said. "We had to replace the 
doors, find the special glass which was extremely difficult, get the 
AK-47 to fit correctly so it would never fall down, stabilize the 
Fialka, reinforce the bottoms of the display (cases). Luckily I'm a 
carpenter so that helped. Even the display for the uniform was made from 
an old lamp."

The Fialka first went into operation in 1959, officials said. According 
to the rotating picture frame in the display, Eastern Bloc countries 
were issued customized, upgraded versions of the Fialka machine, which 
included keyboards, print heads and rotor sets adapted to accommodate 
their respective individual alphabets and special characters. The rotor 
sets were each wired differently and used for inter-country 
communication.

Few Fialkas exist today following their systematic destruction by the 
Soviet and subsequent Russian governments for security purposes, 
officials said. It remains an obscure, but highly significant Cold War 
cryptologic artifact today.

Maj. Gen. Robert Otto, AFISRA commander and officiating officer at the 
display unveiling, recognized National Cryptolgic Center Museum staff 
for their support promoting the efforts of the AFISRA History Office to 
assemble its display. All three AFISRA Heritage Center cryptologic 
machines are on loan from the National Cryptolgic Center museum

"I don't think that museum will be asking us to return their artifacts 
any time soon since our displays are really world class," Otto said.


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