Austria bought five old Swedish J35F Draken fighters for $155,000 and plans to cannibalize them for spare parts to keep its 24 Drakens flying. --Stephen V Cole

Desperate for cash, Russia is taking several of its most modern Kilo-class submarines out of service in order to sell them to cash export customers. --Stephen V Cole

The USS San Francisco, a nuclear attack submarine, set its clocks forward to 28 Feb 2000 and fired a Tomahawk cruise missile. The missile performed flawlessly (no Y2K bug there!) and was recovered by parachute at China Lake. The Navy is also working on plans to test GPS guided weapons for Y2K problems. --Stephen V Cole

August 8; B-2 Bomber #20 was named Spirit of Indiana and entered service in late May. --Stephen V Cole

India will receive the second batch of 10 Su-30MKI strike fighters from Russia by year's end. The first batch had 8 aircraft. India will receive 12 more in 2000 and 10 in 2001. --Stephen V Cole

The US uses the missile range at Kwajalein Island to test anti-ballistic missile interceptors and expects to use the facility heavily over the next five years as the National Missile Defense System kicks into high gear. The problem is that the range is closed (by contract) four times per year for weeks at a time. There could be times that a one-day delay in a test actually cost a month or more. The US want to renegotiate the deal to provide more flexible scheduling. --Stephen V Cole

Northrop Grumman has bought Ryan Aeronautical, which builds the Global Hawk spy drone. --Stephen V Cole