AS712

AS712 is a dormant legacy autonomous system registered under RIPE NCC as ALCON-NET-AS, tied in registry remarks to Royal Air Force Base Alconbury in the UK, and it currently announces zero IPv4 and zero IPv6 prefixes across every routing source checked.

No incorporated "operator" entity is attached to the record. The RIPE as-name resolves to Alconbury, a USAFE installation, while the administrative/technical contact on file (Paul S. Kim, handle PSK7-RIPE) is affiliated with The MITRE Corporation of Bedford, MA — a US federal defense contractor providing network administration, not a named registrant organization.

The RIPE RDAP autnum top-level events show a registration ("created") date of 2002-08-21 and a last-changed date of 2017-11-15; this is the authoritative RIR registry event and is recorded as the allocated date. The maintainer handle ERX-AS712-MNT indicates an Early Registration Transfer, meaning the ASN was originally assigned under ARIN and later migrated into the RIPE database, consistent with a legacy pre-RIR-era assignment rather than a native RIPE allocation.

Live routing data is unambiguous and agrees across sources: RIPEstat, bgp.he.net, and bgp.tools all show 0 announced IPv4/IPv6 prefixes, 0 of 328 RIS peers seeing it on IPv4, 0 of 324 on IPv6, and CAIDA AS Rank places it at 79,459 with a customer cone of a single ASN (itself), 0 prefixes, 0 addresses. No PeeringDB net record exists for AS712 (a direct API query returned 404), and no public peering policy or operator website was found.

RPKI validation does not apply: with zero announced prefixes there are no routes to check against ROAs, so RPKI posture is Unknown/not applicable rather than a real gap.

Operator

No incorporated operator entity found; RIPE as-name ALCON-NET-AS is associated with Royal Air Force Base Alconbury, UK; administrative/technical contact (Paul S. Kim, PSK7-RIPE) is affiliated with The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA

[Likely] — rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/712, rest.db.ripe.net/ripe/aut-num/AS712.json

Country / RIR

GB (per RDAP remark "Royal Air Base Alconbury GB"), RIPE NCC [Confirmed] — stat.ripe.net/AS712

Allocated

2002-08-21 (RIPE RDAP autnum top-level "created" event — first-party RIR registration date); last changed 2017-11-15 [Confirmed] — rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/712

Org status

registry status ACTIVE per RIPE, but maintainer handle ERX-AS712-MNT indicates an Early Registration Transfer (originally ARIN-allocated, later transferred into the RIPE database) consistent with a legacy pre-RIR-era assignment; not currently announcing routes [Likely] — rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/712

Contacts

no abuse contact published (empty abuse_contacts list); administrative/technical contact Paul S. Kim (PSK7-RIPE), The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA, US [Confirmed] — stat.ripe.net/AS712, rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/712

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-07-25 — no AS712-specific hits in Spamhaus or AbuseIPDB; no NANOG archive discussion located (search incomplete, session budget exhausted)

Network & routing

Network type

legacy/government network associated with RAF Alconbury, UK (a USAFE installation, historically hosting the JIOCEUR Analytic Center); not a commercial ISP or transit provider [Likely] — rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/712, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Alconbury

Size

dormant — 0 IPv4 prefixes / 0 IPv4 addresses and 0 IPv6 prefixes; customer cone = 1 ASN (itself), 0 prefixes, 0 addresses [Confirmed] — stat.ripe.net/AS712, bgp.he.net/AS712, bgp.tools/as/712, CAIDA AS Rank API

Routing/peering

NOT announced — 0 RIS peers seeing it (0/328 v4, 0/324 v6); CAIDA degree total 0 (customer 0, peer 0, provider 0); no PeeringDB net record (API query returned 404); no public peering policy found [Confirmed] — stat.ripe.net/AS712, peeringdb.com/api/net?asn=712

RPKI

not applicable — AS712 announces no prefixes, so there are no ROAs to validate [Confirmed] — RIPEstat rpki-validation field (skipped for lack of a routed prefix)

Notable usage

Unknown / not publicly documented. Contextually associated with RAF Alconbury, UK, where The MITRE Corporation is one of several defense/intelligence contractors present, but no source ties AS712's traffic to a specific mission

[Likely] — rafalconbury.com/directory/, 501csw.usafe.af.mil/Pathfinder-Portal/RAF-Alconbury-RAF-Molesworth/

Related ASNs

none identified [Unknown]

Analyst note

Encountered as a dormant, unrouted legacy ASN with an unusual registrant profile — a RIPE-region record whose as-name and geo remark point to a UK Royal Air Force installation, administered via a contact affiliated with a US defense contractor. Registration event and routing-inactivity facts are solid across sources; the operator's actual identity and historical use remain unverified beyond registry text.