A mysterious Tektron secure telephone

Recently, a mysterious telephone was offered for sale at eBay. The device was made by the little-known company Tektron Micro Electronics, Inc. from Hanover, Maryland, and seems to be a secure phone for military use.

Apart from the pictures shown below, nothing more is known about it, but maybe some readers of this weblog recognize the device and have some more information about its purpose and where it was used.

A Tektron secure military telephone
(Photo via eBay - Click to enlarge)

The phone comes without a handset, but it has a display and a common 12-button key pad, with some additional special purpose buttons. According to the seller, all of them are made of some kind of rubbery material instead of hard plastic. The big round buttons reveal that this is a secure phone, capable encrypting the calls: a green button with a green light for Secure and a red button with a (probably) red light for Non-Secure:

Keypad of the Tektron telephone
(Photo via eBay - Click to enlarge)

It seems the small button with "2nd" can be used to select the functions which are marked in blue above the standard buttons. Most interesting are the FO (Flash Override) designation above the "3", the F (Flash) above the "6", the I (Immediate) above the "9" and the P (Priority) above the "#" button.

FO, F, I, and P designate the four levels of a system called Multilevel Precedence and Preemption (MLPP), which allows to make phone calls that get precedence over ones with a lower priority. Flash Override (FO) was designed to allow the US President and the National Command Authority to preempt any other traffic in the network in case of a national military emergency.

This precedence system only works on telephone networks that allow this special capability, like the AUTOVON network that was used by the US military (since 1982 replaced by the Defence Switched Network). One of the characteristics of the AUTOVON network was that most of its phones were equipped with a standardized keypad with four extra red buttons for the precedence levels:

The standard AUTOVON keypad
(Click to enlarge)

So apparently, the Tektron phone was intended for use on the military telephone network, but why it doesn't have the standard AUTOVON keypad is a mystery.

We also don't know when the phone was manufactured. The only indication is provided by the label on the back of the device. It says the model number is EXT-4Rx and has the serial number 271/4.0. The seller had a second device with serial number 111.

There is also a National or NATO Stock Number (NSN): 5810-01-357-8193. Looking up this number on a stock number website returns a "Date Established" of 1992. This indicates the phone must be somewhere from the 1990s, although the way this number is placed, without its own line, also looks like it could have been added later on:

Label of the Tektron telephone
(Photo via eBay - Click to enlarge)

It's not known where exactly this phone was used, which is an even bigger question because in the 1990s secure telephony for the US government and military had largely been standardized after the introduction of the STU-III family of secure voice products.

The STU-III standard was introduced by the NSA in 1987, and three manufacturers were allowed to produce secure telephones based on this standard:

- Motorola
- AT&T (later: Lucent Technologies > General Dynamics)
- RCA (later: General Electric > Lockheed Martin > L3-Communications)

Motorola and AT&T each made a few hundred thousand of these devices. Tektron is not known for having participated in the STU-III program.

Side view of the Tektron secure military telephone
(Photo via eBay - Click to enlarge)

The Tektron secure phone measures 7.75 inches (19,6 cm) wide, a little over 9 inches tall (22,8 cm) and 2 inches (5 cm) thick. The encryption function made it very heavy: it weighs about 5,5 pounds (2,5 kg), as the case is fully made from cast non-metallic metal, perhaps aluminum.

Such a metal encasing prevents electromagnetic radiation from being intercepted from the outside (TEMPEST). The STU-III, and the newer STE phones only have their bottom part out of metal, with the upper part out of plastic.

US State Department red phones

On February 1st, senator John Kerry became the new US Secretary of State, succeeding Hillary Clinton, who held this office since January 2009. John Kerry is just two weeks in office, but we already have a nice picture of him in his new office:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks by telephone with
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from his Inner Office
at the Department of State, February 5, 2013.
(State Department photo)

This picture is taken in the so called inner or private office, which is next to the bigger ceremonial office, where the secretary of state is most often seen, receiving and talking to his guests. The smaller private office is used for the actual work, and therefore that's also where the phones are (the US president also has a rarely seen private office, next to the ceremonial Oval Office).

On the desk we see a Cisco 7975 unified IP phone with a 7916 expansion module. With a close look we can see that the phone has a yellow faceplate (like the one in the header of this weblog), instead of the standard silver one, which indicates that it's part of the new, highly secure Executive Voice over Secure IP-network. This network connects the president with all major decision makers.

The phone which secretary Kerry is using in the picture, is a high end Avaya/Lucent 6424D phone set, which is part of the internal State Department telephone network. This phone can also be seen in many pictures of the ceremonial office. Finally, we see a really large videoteleconferencing (VTC) screen with camera on top.

It seems the Cisco phone and the VTC-screen are installed quite recently, because when former secretary of state Hillary Clinton showed her inner office in May 2010, there was at least one other type of phone, which was there already when Madeleine Albright held this office:

Video still of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showing her
private office to Scott Pelley of the CBS show 60 Minutes.
(click to watch the video!)

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in her private office
(Date unknown)

In both these pictures, we see a big white Integrated Services Telephone (IST) at the lower right corner of the bookshelfs. This futuristic looking phone was designed by Electrospace Systems Inc. and later on produced by Raytheon. It was part of the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN), which is the main secure telephone network of the US military.

As we saw in an earlier posting, the president had a newer version of this phone, the IST-2, on his desk in the Oval Office. In 2011 that phone was also replaced by a Cisco 7975 IP phone, just like the one which is now at the desk of the secretary of state. So it looks like these new IP phones of the top secret executive VoIP network are gradually replacing the so called red phones of the DRSN, which is still an old fashioned switched telephone network.

The phones of the Defense Red Switch Network are sometimes called "red phones", because in the sixties and seventies, the telephone sets connected to predecessors of this network were often red. A nice example of such an early day red phone is the one in this picture:

This is a very common phone without rotary dial, made by ITT. Phones like this are still available today, for example for hotlines or emergency lines of any kind. This phone was probably used for a predecessor of the DRSN, like the Automatic Secure Voice Communications Network (AUTOSEVOCOM). This is indicated by the label, which says: "Up to TOP SECRET Information may be processed on this system" with next to it, the eagle from the seal of the United Stated and the words "Bureau of Diplomatic Security":

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) is an agency of the State Department, which is responsible for protecting US embassies and diplomatic personnel and securing critical information systems, like for example the telephone networks.

Therefore, the red telephone in the picture was probably used for a secure telephone connection at one of the major embassies, at the State Department operations center, or maybe even in the office of the secretary of state of that time!

Bilateral Hotlines Worldwide

(Updated: November 8, 2014)

In a previous article we discussed the Washington-Moscow Hotline, being the most famous bilateral hotline. It was soon followed by direct communication links between a number of other countries with nuclear capabilities. In general these hotlines started as teletype connection, being upgraded with facsimile units in the eighties and were eventually turned into dedicated secure computer networks. An exception is the hotline between Washington and London, which was a phone line already since 1943.

These hotlines between the heads of governments, are meant to prevent (nuclear) war in times of severe crisis. For preventing misunderstandings and miscommunications in less critical situations, countries have also set up lower level telephone hotlines between their defense or foreign ministers. For example, the United States has so called Defense Telephone Links with at least 23 other states.

Overview of both top level and lower level bilateral hotlines worldwide
reflecting political and military relationships between countries
(Click for a bigger version)

UNITED STATES - RUSSIA
- In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union established the Direct Communications Link (DCL) or Washington-Moscow Hotline. This highly secured connection originally used teletype machines, which were replaced by facsimile units in 1988 and is using e-mail since 2008.
- In 1990 both countries agreed to establish a direct, secure telephone link between Washington and Moscow. This might be the Direct Voice Link (DVL), which is maintained by the White House Communications Agency.

Between the US and Russia there are also the following lower level communication links:

- In 1988 the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC) was established at the US Department of State, which is used to exchange information in support of arms control treaties. After the split-up of the Soviet Union this secure data exchange connection, called Government-to-Government Communication Link (GGCL), was extended to Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
- In 2000 the US and Russia signed an agreement for the establishement of a Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) to share early warning information on missile and space launches to reduce the risk that a test launch could be misread as a missile attack. It's not clear whether this center has already been realized or not.

Besides these bilateral hotlines with Russia, the United States also has the following lower level communication links with other nations:

- There is a secure telephone line called Foreign Affairs Link (FAL) between the US Department of State and Russia (since 1999), Japan, Mexico, Germany and Israel.

- There is a Defense Telephone Link (DTL) between the US Department of Defense and Russia (since 1994), China (since 2008), Albania, Oman, Qatar, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Kuwait, Estonia, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Bahrain, Israel (since 1996), United Arab Emirates, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic and Austria.

- In September 2011, the United States proposed opening a direct military hotline with Iran to avoid a possible conflict erupting over the Iranian nuclear program. Tehran declined the offer.



UNITED STATES - UNITED KINGDOM
- During World War II, two decades before the hotline Washington-Moscow was established, there was a hotline between the Cabinet War Room bunker under Downing Street and the White House in Washington. From 1943-1946 this link was made secure by using the very first voice encryption machine, called SIGSALY. In the fifties and sixties the Washington-London hotline was secured by the KY-9, probably succeeded by the KY-3 voice encryption devices. Eventually, the British prime minister was directly connected to the US Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN).


UNITED STATES - GERMANY
- In 1969 president Nixon offered the German prime minister (Bundeskanzler) to set up a secure teletype hotline, like the US already had with Moscow and London. Earlier, president Johnson had called kanzler Erhard by using a standard phone line.


UNITED STATES - SPAIN
- The Spanish prime minister José Maria Aznar (1996-2004) was so often in contact with US president George W. Bush, that a special phone line was installed in his office in the Moncloa palace, exclusively for phone calls to the White House. One of those phone calls was just before the war in Iraq and both leaders also talked about developments in South America.*



UNITED STATES - CHINA
- On April 29, 1998 the United States and China signed an agreement to set up a direct telephone link between the presidents of both countries.
- On February 29, 2008 both countries agreed to set up a Defense Telephone Link (DTL) between the US Department of Defense and China’s Ministry of National Defense, which became operational in April 2008. Until 2011 this hotline was used only four times.



RUSSIA - CHINA
- A hotline connection between Moscow and Bejing was used during the 1969 frontier confrontation between the two countries. The Chinese however refused the Russian peace attempts, and informed Moscow that the direct communications link "was no longer "advantageous" and normal diplomatic channels would suffice". After a reconciliation between the former enemies, the hotline between China and Russia was revived in 1996.* It's not clear whether this hotline is for record or voice communications.
- A telephone hotline between the defence ministries of Russia and China became operational on March 14, 2008.



RUSSIA - NORTH KOREA
- Apparently there was a facsimile-hotline between Moscow and Pyongyang, which was used in 1968, when North Korea captured the American spy ship USS Pueblo.*



RUSSIA - FRANCE
- Since 1966 there was a direct teletype connection between the French president and the Kremlin. In 1989 the teletype equipment was replaced by high speed facsimile units.*


RUSSIA - UNITED KINGDOM
- Since 1967 there was a direct teletype connection between the British prime minister and the Kremlin. In 2011 this hotline was upgraded to a better-encrypted telephone link.


RUSSIA - GERMANY
- In 1989 a facsimile connection was established between the West-German capital Bonn and Moscow.* The Soviet Union also had a hotline with Erich Honecker as leader of the former East-German Republic (DDR). During a short period before East and West Germany were united in 1991, there was a hotline between Honecker and the West-German Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl.*



ISRAEL - EGYPT
- In 2009 Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak agreed to pass on relevant intelligence information immediately using a hotline, primarily to combat smuggling from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.



INDIA - PAKISTAN
- In 2004 India and Pakistan agreed to set up a secure hotline between their foreign ministers, aimed at preventing misunderstandings that might lead to nuclear war.
- In 2011 both countries agreed to set up a 24/7 non-encrypted hotline between their interior ministers, that will facilitate real-time information sharing on terrorist threats. The Director-General of Military Operations of the two countries already had a hotline.


INDIA - CHINA
- Since 2005 there's a non-encrypted hotline between the foreign ministers of India and China for building "mutual political trust".
- In 2009 both countries agreed to set up a direct, secure telephone link between the Chinese premier and Indian prime minister, which was meant as a confidence building measure and to maintain regular contacts at the highest level. The agreement for this hotline was signed in April 2010.


INDIA - RUSSIA
- There's also a non-encrypted hotline between Delhi and Moscow, which was established before 2009.



SOUTH KOREA - NORTH KOREA
- An existing direct communication line between North and South Korea was cut off by North Korea on May 26, 2010. This hotline was reopend in January 2011 and was maintained by the international Red Cross. North Korea again cut off this hotline on March 11, 2013.



CHINA - SOUTH KOREA
- In September 2012, China and South Korea agreed to set up a consular hotline between their defense ministries to protect rights of their citizens who are staying in the other country. In April 2013 both countries agreed to set up a second, 24-hour hotline to deal with the rising tension over North Korea.


CHINA - VIETNAM
- In June 2013, China and Vietnam agreed to set up a naval hotline between their defense departments, in order to keep a peaceful and secure maritime environment in the South China Sea, amid escalating maritime tensions over disputed South China Sea islands.


In 2010, China and Japan agreed to establish a hotline between their political leaders, following a series of naval incidents, but the plan wasn't realized. Defence officials of the two countries also agreed in 2011 to set up a military-to-military hotline by the end of 2012, but the talks stalled due to heightened tensions over the territorial row. In February 2013, Japan again suggested to establish a China-Japan hotline, and reiterated this once again in January 2014.


When more information about these hotlines becomes available, it will be added here. Some of the most notable bilateral hotlines will be discussed later on this weblog.



Links and Sources (PDF)
- National Communications System, Forty Years of Service to the Nation: 1963-2003, 2003
- Haraldur Þór Egilsson, The Origins, Use and Development of Hot Line Diplomacy, Institute Clingendael, 2003
- US Department of State, Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM), 2011