Last week, a large force of B-2 Spirit bombers and other supporting assets deployed to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which TWZ was the first to report on. The unprecedented stealth bomber deployment comes amid growing U.S. threats to the regime in Tehran, as well as stepped-up strikes on their Houthi proxies in Yemen. Now, according to a recent report from The Telegraph, Iranian officials are exploring options for preemptive strikes on Diego Garcia or at least a show of force aimed near the island. The mounting tensions and high-profile B-2 deployment present a new and particularly pronounced data point in the already heated debate over whether the U.S. military should invest more in new, hardened aircraft shelters and other fortified air base infrastructure amid rapidly evolving standoff aerial attack threats.
A satellite image from Planet Labs, taken today and reviewed by TWZ, shows six B-2s alongside six other large aircraft, which could include tankers, cargo planes, and other types, parked in the open at the airfield on Diego Garcia. Another Planet Labs image from March 29 shows four B-2s and six KC-135 tankers parked on the apron, as well as three of the base’s four specially designed B-2 shelters open. Containers that may be associated with deployable mobile operations centers are also visible. Whether or not there are additional bombers inside the shelters in either image is unknown. The shelters are not hardened, but are climate-controlled, and each is designed to hold a single B-2.
Additional satellite imagery has previously been circulating online showing up to five B-2s on the apron along with other supporting aircraft. There are still-unconfirmed reports that seven Spirits may now be at Diego Garcia. The Air Force only has 19 of the stealth bombers in total, meaning that somewhere between 20 and 35 percent of the entire fleet is now forward deployed in the Indian Ocean. Only a portion of the B-2 fleet is available for operational tasking at any one time due to maintenance and other factors, so this represents an even higher percentage of the bombers that the Air Force has to actually send out on missions.
