SEATTLE, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- A futuristic plan to arm a Boeing 747 with an anti-missile laser weapon continued on schedule Tuesday with modifications to the massive aircraft more than half completed.

Team ABL (Airborne Laser), which consists of defense contractors Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW, said Tuesday that crews at Boeing's Wichita, Kansas facility were continuing to work on the plane's electrical system and fuselage supports as well as the location on the nose where the laser will be mounted.

"You can see the nose modification where we will install the turret in about a year and a half. It is being made by Lockheed Martin and will weigh about 14,000 pounds," said Brad Gorsuch, the ABL project manager at the Wichita facility.

After a year of testing and once in the air in 2003, the 747 should be capable of shooting down incoming missiles such as the Soviet-built Scud that was used by Iraq during the Gulf War. The ABL is designed to home in on missiles shortly after they are launched and blow them out of the sky above their launch sites.

The aircraft is on schedule for completion in January 2002, Gorsuch said. It will undergo flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California, including an attempt to shoot down a live missile sometime in 2003.

"For the magnitude of the modification involved, we are doing an outstanding job," Gorsuch said. "We have some schedule issues because of the magnitude of the work, but we'll work through those and we're going to deliver this airplane on time in January 2002."

The Air Force plans to eventually have seven ABL planes that can be quickly flown to hot spots anywhere in the world.