(FORTUNE Magazine) – Before Defense Secretary Les Aspin unrolled his blueprint for the future of the armed forces in September, some contractors worried they might be put out of business. But the Pentagon's mission became clear: Keep the military- industrial base intact by spreading a smaller amount of money around shrewdly. The biggest sigh of relief came from Groton, Connecticut, where General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division got approval to build a third Seawolf submarine, at a cost of roughly $2.3 billion. That makes EB the favorite for future submarine projects as well. Not so pleased was Virginia rival Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Tenneco. If Congress agrees with Aspin, the six subs Newport News is now building might be its last. Still, to keep Newport News alive and make sure that the U.S. has at least one other major shipyard, the plan recommends that it build an additional $3 billion aircraft carrier. The Air Force will be able to buy the next generation of advanced fighter, the F-22, even though it is unlikely to get the 648 (total price: $60 billion) it once dreamed of. But even an order of 450 or so would be great news for Lockheed and Boeing, which will build the planes, as well as for United Technologies' starving Pratt & Whitney division, which will manufacture the plane's engine. It also appears likely that hard-pressed McDonnell Douglas will get the okay to produce -- at long last -- the C-17 transport plane. The planes encountered myriad development and production problems and are expected to cost about $300 million apiece. Grumman is disappointed that the Aspin plan nixes the Navy's request for a new attack plane, the A/FX. But the company will get a go-ahead to build an air-to-ground communications system, Joint STARS, which could be worth as much as $7 billion. Northrop seemed to be in trouble, because the order for 132 Stealth bombers it had once hoped to build has shrunk to 20 and will be filled by the end of 1997. But the California contractor will make fuselage segments for the F-18 as well as a combination cruise missile and antitank bomb that starts production in 1995. -- J.M.

-- And how are the Russians to save their submarine fleet? A Foxtrot-class sub that was launched in 1964 as a spy boat has been dispatched to Helsinki and turned into a museum and dockside restaurant. Diners squeeze into the wardroom or a cramped torpedo room to feast on caviar, bear meat, dark bread, and champagne; they are sometimes regaled by a former captain who tells stories of how he used to play hide-and-seek with the American fleet. Finnish businessman Jari Komulainen, who leases the sub from Moscow, hopes to deploy similar craft to Copenhagen and Stockholm.