US aircraft bombed a hospital on Wednesday in the ISIS-held city of Mosul to help pinned-down Iraqi forces, and for now does not believe any civilians were hurt. ISIS fighters were using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades inside the Al Salem hospital to batter an Iraqi Security Forces unit, which requested air support. Iraqi forces were hit with heavy counterattacks and six vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, the US-led coalition said in a statement. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said during a Thursday briefing that the strike hit the hospital and helped Iraqi forces move back to a safer position. Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, has directed a review of the strike, but there are no indications that civilians were harmed, Dorrian said.
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…