For several days in a row, the United States has been concentrating its B-2 Spirit strategic bombers on the small island of Diego Garcia, located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. While a relocation of even a few from its full-time Whiteman Air Base in Missouri would ordinarily be a massive concern for any potential adversary, various sources report some five to nine aircraft currently stationed there.
Considering the entire American B-2 fleet consists of an estimated 18 to 20 bombers, that makes about one-third of them in one place. But what's more impressive is that they are hosted by an island with a total area of only 30 km², in a strategic location that is crucial for a potential airstrike campaign against Iran.
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Among other aircraft types, the B-2 Spirit might be needed here for its ability to carry GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, effective against heavily fortified objects deployed underground at considerable depths. Because that's where Iran keeps its nuclear weapons production facilities.
On March 26, a detailed satellite image of the air base on Diego Garcia appeared, showing three B-2s and up to four more potentially hidden in light shelters.
Satellite imagery from @IndoPacWatch shows 3 B-2 “Spirit” Long-Range Strategic Stealth Bombers on the tarmac today at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as well as possibly 4 others under hardened aircraft shelters, bringing the total B-2s that could be at the base to 7. In… pic.twitter.com/YI2C4KSpxp — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 26, 2025
Updated data, including the imagery from March 28, suggests there are now five B-2 stealth bombers on the open-air site alone and up to four more in shelters. The resolution of this one is worse, yet it's not much of a problem when searching for a characteristic triangular-shaped aircraft with a 52-meter wingspan, through the cloudy weather. Contrast filter helps to notice at least five such triangular objects in the same area.
The choice of this air base for B-2s is pragmatic, too, because it is outside the range of known Iranian ballistic missiles. So far, the farthest-reaching missile in Iran's possession is believed to be the Ghadr-1 with a range of about 2,000 km. Diego Garcia, meanwhile, sits almost twice as far away in the Chagos archipelago, an overseas British territory approximately 3,800 km from Iran.
Side note, in 1966, the United States reached an agreement with the UK to transform Diego Garcia into a military base. The entire population of the island was forcibly evicted, the necessary infrastructure was deployed, and the base started operation in 1973, since then becoming an important U.S. outpost in the Indian Ocean.
Besides the air base, it houses a U.S. Navy support base and U.S. Space Force units, including the Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) station equipped with spacecraft communications and powerful telescopes to track satellites and all other man-made objects in orbit.
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