U.S. and Russian military officials are actively monitoring both nations' nuclear missile arsenals at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, watching for even the slightest hint of any Y2K-related computer glitches in the computer systems that control the weapons.

So far, officials are reporting that all systems are operating smoothly. Russia has already broached the New Year, and its aging ICBM force is passing the Y2K test at this point.

Officials have admitted the cooperation is a long way from decades of Cold War paranoia and movies such as "Fail-Safe,'' in which a technical problem with communications might have led to a mistaken nuclear attack on Moscow and the destruction of New York by the United States' own bombers.

Both countries created the joint unit at Peterson to make sure there were no accidental missile launches. Joint military officials are watching to make sure systems don't mistake a radar failure as a threat or misidentify a commercial aircraft as a bomber. And they also want to be alert in case a terrorist tried to manipulate their computers.

Sources said the atmosphere in the Peterson monitoring room was lax, with personnel frequently breaking into laughter and one military source describing the watch as otherwise "dull."

"So far it's what we thought it would be, pretty dull," said U.S. Lt. Col. Greg Boyette.

President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed upon the team. Earlier today, however, Yeltsin announced he was resigning and turning power over to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The resignation "caught us a little off guard but kept the crew members awake because there was something to talk about," said Boyette. And Col. Sergey Kaplin, head of the Russian military team, said it showed "the Russian Federation is ready to meet the new year."

Through mid-January, six-person crews -- two Russians, two Americans and two translators -- will be working eight-hour shifts around the clock, watching computer screens in a 1,200-square-foot, $4.5 million center in Building 1040.

The building is next to the U.S. Space Command, which controls all military space programs and a few miles across Colorado Springs from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint U.S. and Canadian operation that monitors manmade objects in space from deep inside Cheyenne Mountain.

Senior U.S. commanders are planning to be on duty at Cheyenne Mountain throughout the period, as are their Russian counterparts, separate from the team at Peterson, thousands of miles away.

Sources reported that no U.S. officers are allowed in the Russian missile center, and the Russians will not be permitted in the NORAD facilities. Information from Cheyenne Mountain is being passed on to the Y2K Strategic Stability Center at Peterson and shared with Russian military officials.