In mid-December 1999, aircraft number 1238, a bare bones 747-400 Freighter, rolled off the Boeing Co. assembly line in Everett, Wash. Slightly more than a month later, on Jan. 22, 2000, the aircraft was flown to the Boeing Modification Center in Wichita, Kan. By then it had acquired a name -- prototYpe Attack Laser model 1-A (YAL-1A) -- and a new number -- 00-0001 -- designating it the first military aircraft of the new millennium. Boeing is the prime contractor for ABL, which will provide a speed-of-light capability to destroy all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight.