Okay, thanks Pieter for clearing this up. Always good to relay on people which are well informed.
Stratofreighter, in relation to your comment I personally also thought that the ABL-program was cancelled.
I know you can not always trust sources like Wikipedia, but they state the following:
Wikipedia wrote:In an 6 April 2009 press conference, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is recommending the cancellation of the planned second ABL aircraft and that the program return to a Research and Development effort. "The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems and the program’s proposed operational role is highly questionable," Gates said in making the recommendation.
There was a test launch just off the coast of California on 6 June 2009. If successful the new Airborne Laser Aircraft could be ready for operation by 2013. President Obama had originally said that he was cutting the fund for that program but it was recommended by Secretary of Defense that they should keep it. On 13 August 2009 the first in-flight test of the YAL-1 culminated with a successful firing of the SHEL at an instrumented test missile.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency on Aug. 18 2009 successfully fired the high-energy laser aboard the Airborne Laser (ABL) aircraft in flight for the first time, the modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base and fired its high-energy laser while flying over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power.
Think we can conclude it is a nice technology testbed, which can perhaps be used for future purposes (on satalites perhaps?), and will never see operational service within the USAF I would guess.