Signs U.S. Massing B-2 Spirit Bombers In Diego Garcia (Updated)
Joseph Trevithick
A significant force of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers looks to be currently wending its way to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Satellite imagery shows at least three C-17 cargo planes and 10 aerial refueling tankers forward-deployed in the last 48 hours to the highly strategic British territory, which has been used as a staging point for U.S. strikes in the Middle East on multiple occasions in the past. The build-up comes amid a new surge in U.S. strikes targeting the Houthis and growing warnings to Iran from the Trump administration over support for the Yemeni militants and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The crews of two B-2 bombers, callsigns Pitch 11 and Pitch 14, could be heard communicating with air traffic controllers in Australia earlier today in publicly available audio. The crew of Pitch 11 confirms the presence of a third bomber, as well. The trio of bombers appears to have refueled in flight over Australia while heading westward.
A fourth B-2, callsign Pitch 13, landed at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii yesterday after declaring an emergency in flight. Video subsequently emerged showing that aircraft being met on the ground by a crash truck, but the nature of the emergency remains unknown.
Additional air traffic control recordings indicate that additional B-2s, using the callsign Abba, departed Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri earlier today also bound for Diego Garcia. The Air Force’s entire force of 20 B-2 bombers is based at Whiteman.
Several U.S. Air Force KC-135R Aerial-Refueling Tankers departed earlier from RAAF Base Amberley in Eastern Australia and are now circling over Queensland, likely either currently or preparing to refuel the pair of B-2 “Spirit” Long-Range Strategic Stealth Bombers from Whiteman… pic.twitter.com/RbjVVFh14c
“A B-2 Spirit bomber arrived at Hickam Air Force Base,” Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) told TWZ today in response to questions about the in-flight emergency and recent B-2 movements in the Indo-Pacific region more broadly.
“U.S. Strategic Command, its components, and subordinate units routinely conduct global operations in coordination with other combatant commands, services, and participating U.S. government agencies to deter, detect and, if necessary, defeat strategic attacks against the United States and its allies,” AFGSC added. “To preserve operational security, we do not discuss details about exercises or operations.”
Major movements of C-17s and tankers to the Indian Ocean island, as well as to Hickam in Hawaii and Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, look to have started last week, according to online flight tracking data and information from the international Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS).
All of these flights are carrying a RCH0## call signs in sequential order from RCH011-RCH033. Mission coding appears to be linked as well.
This is far too many tankers to be supporting SecDef's trip that begins on Monday, however the timing is curious.
Significant movement of C-17s into Diego Garcia over the last 2 days:
3/23
AE4F14 as RCH258
AE1238 as RCH851
3/24
AE146C as RCH837
AE0805 as RCH287
AE1177 as RCH894
3/25
AE146B as RCH891
AE4D66 as RCH839
Separately, Politico reported last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had extended the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman‘s current Middle Eastern deployment and directed another carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to join it in the region. Online flight tracking data and air traffic control recordings have pointed to a recent deployment of Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighters to the Middle East, as well.
The GOLD Refuelers group has confirmed that they are towing a pair of F-35 fighters (at least 4 from Hill Air Base) over Sicily and heading towards Israel.
After confirming with air traffic control, they disappeared from radar.Further deployments to the Middle East continue. pic.twitter.com/FU5DltGFHF
A deployment of just four B-2s, representing 20 percent of the Air Force’s total fleet of the stealth bombers, to Australia in 2022 was seen as sending a significant signal to China and other potential adversaries, as well as to America’s allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific region. Two years earlier, six B-52s went to Diego Garcia in another show of force in the wake of the U.S. military killing Qasem Soleimani, then head of the Quds Force external operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in neighboring Iraq
Diego Garcia’s general location relative to various potential hotspots only adds to its strategic significance. The island’s lagoon is also used to host a U.S. Military Sealift Command Prepositioning Ship Squadron full of military vehicles, ammunition, and other materiel for rapid deployment in the event of any of a host of contingencies.
Staging more than four B-2s at Diego Garcia now would be at least another major show of force aimed squarely at the Middle East. The bombers present a unique mix of capabilities, particularly their ability to penetrate past dense enemy air defenses to carry out ‘bunker buster’ strikes employing 30,000-pound class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs. MOP, which only the B-2 is currently certified to employ operationally, itself offers a unique conventional option for striking deeply buried and fortified targets, of which there are many in Iran.
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