This is a DoD fax of an NSA-brief on the Chinese satellite crypto device. It was prepared for July 8 testimony by DoD's Franklin Miller before the Senate Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation and Federal Affairs. Miller's testimony was cancelled but DoD has provided the one- page brief to the media upon request. JUL-14-1998 12:51 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PA 703 697 3501 p.02 JUL 8 1998 Question: What happened to the encryption device that was aboard the failed INTELSAT launch in 1996? Answer: The U.S. personnnel present searched the site for two days after the launch failure. Despite extremely hazardous conditions that made recovery very difficult, the U.S. personnel believed that they recovered all recoverable U.S. parts and components that survived the launch failure. No identifiable parts or components associated with the Telemetry Tracking and Control Encryption devices [TT&C], and the circuit board on which it was mounted, were recovered. We have been advised by Loral that the devices were embedded on a tray mounted within the Command Processor Box of the satellite. lf this is the case, it is highly unlikely that the devices survived the crash because of the crash impact and high temperatures produced by the burning rocket propellants. According to Loral, the Command Processor Box was located adjacent to the propellant tanks and U.S. personnel at the site recovered only 30% of the box. The COMSEC circuit board consisted of a printed wiring board and forty plus, off-the-shelf and semi-custom discrete small sca]e integrated circuit chips. The COMSEC board is somewhat large and relatively fragile (about 6x10 inches), with interconnecting "tracks" on the board which interconnect the many logic devices into the COMSEC algorithm. As such a whole circuit board, its whole composite set of pieces, and the whole set of logic chips need to be recovered to succeed in reengineering the design of the device. If Loral's assessment of the physical implementation of the two COMSEC devices aboard INTELSAT 708 and the extent of damage to the command processor from the crash, impact and fire are correct, NSA and DTSA believe that it is highly unlikely that these items could have been recovered in sufficient detail to reverse engineer. In the unlikely event that the Chinese were able to recover all the items fully intact, it is important to note that the encryption board involved many embedded devices. Any loss of the chips and associated encryption algorithm would have have only minimal impact on national security because the INTELSAT 708 satellite was uniquely keyed. [End fax]