Summary and Key Points: The sudden deployment of seven U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Diego Garcia signals a likely escalation in U.S. military actions against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
-Accompanied by refueling tankers and cargo aircraft, these bombers make up a third of America’s entire B-2 fleet, highlighting the seriousness of the mission.
-Speculation suggests the bombers might carry the massive GBU-57 bombs, capable of penetrating deep, fortified underground targets—possibly including strategic sites in Iran, the Houthis‘ primary supporter.
-President Trump’s warnings to Iran further suggest broader implications, marking an aggressive posture shift in U.S. strategy against regional threats.
Why Are There So Many B-2 Bombers In Diego Garcia? The Houthis Should Worry
As of 28 March at least seven B-2 Spirit bombers have landed on the island of Diego Garcia along with ten aerial refueling tanker aircraft and three C-17 cargo lifters – all within 48 hours of one another, according to a number of reports.
The small island in the Indian Ocean is a strategic hub for operations extending into the Middle East to Africa to the Indo-Pacific. The deployment was announced by a spokesperson for Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) and confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The official announcements of the bombers’ arrival come after several days of speculation.
Only three B-2 bomber aircraft arrived intially, with a fourth being forced to land at Hickam AFB in Hawaii due to a technical problem. Open-source intelligence analysts have reported all of these movements and has led to growing speculation as to what is the purport for their presence in the Indian Ocean in such numbers.
(AFGSC spokesperson confirmed that one B-2 “landed safely” at the Hawaiian base, but did not provide details regarding the cause of the emergency, or the bomber’s planned destination. That B-2 has since departed Hickam according to the individual that tracked the initial emergency landing of the aircraft.)
The US Air Force (USAF) B-2 fleet consists of 20 aircraft, so the bombers now on Diego Garcia represent a third of the entire inventory. The arrival of these aircraft has been popping up periodically on different websites that show tracking movements of any aircraft using FAA identifiers, radio transmissions, or flight tracking data.
Some tracking sites reported KC-135s refueling multiple B-2s in the air on 26 March.
On 25 March air traffic control audio surfaced using the call sign of one of the B-2s saying “ABBA 11 cleared to destination FJDG.” (FJDG is the FAA 4-letter code for Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia.)
Long Hiatus for B-2
It has been since August 2020 that any B-2s have spent significant time on the island’s air base. August 2024 was the first time that one of the stealthy bombers even made a short pit stop on the facility.
An AFGSC spokesman did confirm that the bombers were on the island but would not confirm why they are there now – and in such numbers.
The most likely scenario is that the B-2’s are joining an escalating air campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. B-2s had been used to bomb the Houthis last October, but they did not base out of Diego Garcia for that mission.
Then US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin characterized the attack as “a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened or fortified.”
The arrival of all of the B-2s began only days after the US military confirmed that it was planning to send more aircraft to the Middle East region.
Which Is The Target
The October 2024 attacks on targets in Yemen are believed to have employed the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs. This weapon is too heavy for almost any other combat aircraft to carry and would have marked the combat debut of the weapon.
The “MOP” has a unique capability to penetrate almost any hardened, underground sensitive military site in the world without resorting to the use of a nuclear weapon. For deeply buried installations, the USAF operations call for the use of multiple GBU-57s.
By using their GPS precision guidance, it is possible to “layer in” one warhead after another on to a precise location. This causes each successive weapon to “dig in” deeper than previous bomb. Multiple strikes like this can achieve s achieve deeper penetration than is possible with just a single weapon.
This has, in turn, raised speculation that some of these aircraft may be sent to hit targets in Iran proper, who are the Houthis main benefactor.
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran that Tehran will be held responsible if the Houthis, who are a U.S.-designated terrorist group, continues their attacks. He has also warned Iran that it faces military reprisals if it continues with developing a nuclear weapon.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
