KL-51

KL-51 on display at the National Cryptologic Museum in 2005.

The KL-51 is an off-line keyboard encryption system that read and punched paper tape for use with teleprinters. In NATO it was called RACE (Rapid Automatic Cryptographic Equipment).

It was developed in the 1970s by a Norwegian company, Standard Telefon og Kabelfabrik (STK). It used digital electronics for encryption instead of rotors, and it may have been the first machine to use software based crypto algorithms. KL-51 is a very robust machine made to military specifications.

U.S. National Security Agency bought it in the 1980s to replace the earlier KL-7. As of 2006, the U.S. Navy was developing plans to replace KL-51 units still in use with a unit based on a more modern Universal Crypto Device.^[1]

References

↑ http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2007/Navy/0303140N.pdf

Sources

NSA museum caption shown in photo.
Crypto Machines - KL-51/RACE
http://www.knobstick.ca/pdf_files/race1.pdf

Cipher machines

Rotor machines	CCM Enigma M-125 Fialka Hebern HX-63 KL-7 Lacida M-325 Mercury NEMA OMI Portex RED SIGABA SIGCUM Singlet Typex

Mechanical	Bazeries cylinder C-36 C-52 CD-57 Cipher disk HC-9 Kryha Jefferson disk M-94 M-209 Reihenschieber Scytale

Teleprinter	5-UCO BID 770 DUDEK KW-26 KW-37 Lorenz SZ 40/42 Siemens and Halske T52

Secure voice	BID 150 FASCINATOR KY-3 KY-57 KY-58 KY-68 NESTOR OMNI SCIP Sectéra Secure Module SIGSALY STE STU-II STU-III VINSON

Other	JADE KG-84 KL-43 KL-51 Noreen PURPLE GREEN（Japanese：-{グリーン暗号}-） Pinwheel Rockex

Cryptography

History of cryptography Cryptanalysis Outline of cryptography

Symmetric-key algorithm Block cipher Stream cipher Public-key cryptography Cryptographic hash function Message authentication code Random numbers Steganography

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