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Hand UK ← Slidex
Grid-based manual cipher system
- this page is a stub
BATCO is a paper-based hand-held manual cipher system, introduced in the
British Army in the early 1980s as a replacement for the
ageing SLIDEX system
that had been in use since WWII. The system consists of a set of
vocabulary cards and cipher sheets for superencipherment of
numeric code words.
BATCO is short for Battle Code
and was in use as a backup system until 2016, not only in the
British Army,
but also by the Armies of other NATO countries such as
the Netherlands.
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The BATCO system consists of a green plastic wallet that can be hung from
the neck of the user by means of a black cord. When closed, the 370 gram
wallet measures 215 x 145 x 20 mm.
Inside the wallet are a series of ring-bound plastic pockets, each of which
contains a paper sheet with an indexed vocabulary.
Also inside the wallet is a plastic frame with a ruler, inside which a
sheet with the encryption matrix is held.
The matrix is changed periodically and consists of tables with
letters, numbers and bigrams.
The position of the ruler is part of the daily key.
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Encryption is a two-step process: the words (from the vocabulary cards)
are first converted into numbers, which are then (2) converted to two-letter
groups (bigrams), using the current cipher sheet.
BATCO was only used for low-level front-line tactical messages when other types
of encryption, such as secure voice or
encrypted teleprinter,
were compromised or unavailble.
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Occasionally, BATCO wallets can be found on auction sites like eBay, but
in most cases, they come without the original cards and without
their plastic sleeves. But even if the original plastic sleeves are still
present, it might be wise to replace them anyway, as they contain chlorine.
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As a result, the toner of the printed cards may stick to the inside of
the plastic sleeves and leave a permanent imprint when removed. This imprint
may then be transferred to new cards that are inserted. According to
German collector Karsten Hansky [2], a good replacement sleeve is:
Lindner 885P Schutzhüllen 190 x 130 mm
Two holes should be punched with a regular office puncher (standard
distance of 80 mm) after which the edge (close to the holes) should be
cropped by 2 mm, so that the pages can be turned without binding.
These sleeves may be available on eBay (use the above text in your search).
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Device Manual encryption system Purpose Backup encryption in case other systems are unavailable Name BATCO Country UK Years ~1982 — 2010 (2016) Predecessor Slidex Users UK, NATO Dimensions ? Weight ?
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- Wikipedia, BATCO
Retrieved April 2016.
- Karsten Hansky, Complete BATCO unit and scans of all cards
Received December 2019.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Saturday 23 April 2016. Last changed: Friday, 10 October 2025 - 08:18 CET.
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