The White House is aware of Iranian officials’ conflicting reports that their country recently carried out a ballistic missile launch, spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. Questions of whether a test occurred arose after Iranian news agencies provided conflicting reports. One Iranian news agency reported a precision-guided missile with a range of 1,240 miles was successfully tested two weeks ago, but on Monday the country’s defense minister denied a test of a missile with that range took place, Reuters reported. “So we’re still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly transpired,” Earnest told reporters. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook also said the Defense Department was aware of the reported tests, but could not confirm whether they actually occurred.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…