US, Russia monitoring missile systems

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, Dec 31: US and Russian military on Thursday started surveying their strategic missile control systems to prepare for the year 2000 and to assure one another they will function fine, but they have already encountered communication problems, reports AFP.

"All our systems have been checked and we are sure they will work well," Colonel Sergey Kaplin, chief of the Y2K department of the Armed Force of the Russian Federation, said at a news conference at Peterson Air Force Base here.

The US Army has spent 3.6 billion dollars to have its systems Y2K ready, said US Navy Captain Michael Luginbuhl, vice-director of operations at the US Space Command.

But the crucial moment for the Center for Y2K Strategic Stability (CY2KSS) here will begin at 5:00 a.m. Friday (6:00 am BST) when the first US military bases in the west Pacific on the islands of Kwajalein -- one of the Marshall Islands -- and Guam will change over to January 1, 2000.