AFISRA debuts one-of-a-kind cryptologic display

  • Published
  • By Wayne Amann
  • Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency Public Affairs
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.