Satellite imagery indicates there are now 10 U.S. heavy bombers – six stealthy B-2s and four B-52s – on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. A key question now is whether the arrival of the B-52s, which occurred this week, will lead to the B-2s departing the highly strategic British island territory. Since they first deployed to Diego Garcia in March, the B-2s have been used in strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, with which U.S. authorities recently concluded a ceasefire deal, and their presence has also been a huge show of force aimed at Iran.
A low-resolution satellite image taken today, seen in the social media post below, appears to show the six B-2s and four B-52s. An array of other large aircraft, which could include KC-135 tankers, as well as C-5 and C-17 airlifters, are also visible. KC-135s arrived at Diego Garcia along with the B-2 in March, and C-17s have also been key to supporting that deployment.
Satellite imagery had already emerged yesterday that looked to show a pair of B-52s having touched down on the Indian Ocean island. This all also aligns with online flight tracking data that began emerging earlier in the week, which had pointed to the deployment of two separate pairs of B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to Diego Garcia.
While testifying before members of the House Armed Services Committee yesterday, U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, did say “there’s a Bomber Task Force of B-52s going on as we speak,” but did not name Diego Garcia or provide any additional details.
The Air Force uses the term Bomber Task Force (BTF) to refer to irregular deployments of bombers to forward locations around the world, as you can read more about here. The last known B-52 BTF deployment, which saw four of the bombers head to RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, wrapped up in March.
In response to questions about the B-52 deployment and whether the B-2s will now depart Diego Garcia, a U.S. defense official told TWZ that “we have nothing to provide.”
Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) “routinely conducts 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. To preserve operational security, we do not discuss details about exercises or operations,” the command, which oversees the vast majority of America’s B-52s and other bomber fleets, also told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a statement.
Sending six B-2s to Diego Garcia in March was already a major show of force. This represents roughly a third of the 19 of these stealth bombers currently in operational Air Force service. Only a portion of the B-2 fleet is actually available for mission taskings at any one time, too.
The B-2s are the Air Force’s preeminent aircraft for prosecuting penetrating nuclear or conventional direct strikes deep inside heavily defended enemy territory. The stealth bombers also offer a unique conventional strike capability against deeply buried and otherwise hardened targets through their ability to drop 30,000-pound-class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) precision-guided bunker buster bombs. B-2s, each of which can carry a pair of MOPs on a single sortie, are the only aircraft currently certified to employ these weapons operationally.
As already noted, sending such a large number of B-2s to Diego Garcia had also sent signals well beyond Yemen, particularly to Iran. TWZ had highlighted the strategic messaging factor of employing the stealth bombers after the October 2024 strikes on the Houthis.
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