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Marconi SCIMITAR Fill Gun
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Cryptographic key filler
The SCIMITAR Fill Gun was a small ruggedized electronic device that was
developed in the late 1970s by
Marconi Space & Defense Systems
in Portsmouth (UK).
It was used for transferring the cryptographic keys and
Frequency Hopping (FH) tables to the
SCIMITAR V series of secure radios.
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The image on the right shows the 6-pin connector of the fill gun.
Although it is a typical NATO-type connector, it is different from the
fill devices
used by NATO, which are all of the U-229 type. This particular filler was
probably designed exclusively for the SCIMITAR series.
Only a single connector is present, making it the input as well as the output.
The device has two push-buttons. A green one on top, marked FILL,
which is used to initiate the transfer.
It can easily be operated by, say, the thumb of one hand.
A red button, located at the rear, is used for zeroizing the device in case
security is compromised. It is marked as ERASE.
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The SCIMITAR radios were developed by Marconi with Private Venture Capital
funding (PV) and were not adopted by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD)
[2]
. It was
however used by the armies of Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and Jordan.
Futhermore, some units are known to have been in use with the UK Army
as well
[3]
.
As SCIMITAR radios feature a very advanced cryptographic system,
even by todays standards, potential foreign customers had to obtain a
licence from GCHQ.
At present, no further information about this fill gun is available.
If you have additional information about this device, please
contact us.
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Friday, 25 March 2011 - 14:40 CET
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