The United States has sent an ‘unprecedented’ deployment of its heavy B-2 bombers to the Chagos Islands in a show of force amid rising tensions with Iran.
Six of the famed stealth bombers flew in to the U.S. airbase on Diego Garcia from Missouri last week in the ‘largest single deployment in US history’.
Satellite images of the Indian Ocean airbase showed six of the planes on the apron, adjacent to the runway, last Wednesday.
‘To my knowledge, this is the largest B-2 deployment to a forward location,’ Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists told American journalist Ken Klippenstein.
The Trump administration has been unusually quiet on the deployment to Chagos, which is in range of both Iran and Yemen, where B-2s have been used to target Houthi rebels.
While Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump‘s envoy to the Middle East, said last month that there was still hope Iran could be reached through diplomatic routes, the U.S. president has been more direct in threats against the regime.
Trump said yesterday that if talks between U.S. officials and Iranian leaders this weekend do not go well, ‘Iran is going to be in great danger’.
Asked if the U.S. was gearing up to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, he said: ‘Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran if that’s the case.’
Six B-2 bombers seen on the apron of the US military base on Diego Garcia island, April 2
File photo. A U.S. B-2 Spirit flying above Dover, United Kingdom, 29 August 2019
Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2025
American officials will be looking to convince Iran not only to wind in its nuclear programme, but also to limit the development of ballistic missiles and to cut support for groups clashing with Israel in the region, like Hezbollah.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt, a former Deputy U.S. Military Representative to NATO, told Newsmax last week that leaving the B-2s out of their hangers, to be captured in satellite imagery, was a deliberate tactic meant as a warning, ahead of Saturday’s summit.
‘All the bombers, they’re not in hangers, they’re underneath satellites where they can be photographed and seen; and the idea is, do you see our sword?’ he said last week.
The build up has taken weeks of planning. The military base on the Chagos Islands now hosts 30 per cent of the American fleet of B-2s.
The Pentagon has already ordered one aircraft-carrier strike group to stay in the region, and has sent another to join it.
A second THAAD anti-missile defence battery was also reported to have been transferred to Israel, apparently anticipating possible reprisals.
The U.S. has been steadily building up its military presence in the region amid ongoing clashes with the Yemeni Houthi rebels and ISIS in Syria.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressing the nation in March 2024 (File)
Six American B-2 bomber planes on the tarmac of Mauritius’ US military base on Diego Garcia island as well as 6 logistical Stratotanker aircrafts for in-flight refueling
The United States is also increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping one that is already there and sending another from the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon said April 2, 2025
And at the end of last month, the U.S. sent ‘several’ additional A-10 Warthogs to the Middle East, along with 300 airmen.
The planes have played a key role in providing close air support to ground troops fighting ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria.
Stealth bombers play a very different role, and the build-up appears unprecedented.
Six B-2 bombers were previously used during Operation Enduring Freedom, at the start of the War in Afghanistan.
But their missions across the Pacific Ocean were staggered, spread out over three nights in groups of two.
Stealth bombers pose a direct threat to nuclear sites, capable of carrying GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, which would allow the U.S. to strike nuclear sites deep underground.
Such mounting threats come in spite of an assessment by Trump’s own director of national intelligence on March 25 that the regime has not yet actually decided to build a nuclear weapon.
The American president appeared riled last month when Iran turned down direct talks with Washington.
He said at the time that ‘if they don’t make a deal’ on a new nuclear agreement ‘there will be bombing’.
‘It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,’ he said on March 30.
Iran issued its response via Oman, saying its policy was not to engage in direct negotiations with the U.S. while under its maximum pressure campaign and military threats
‘Direct negotiations [with the US] have been rejected, but Iran has always been involved in indirect negotiations, and now too, the Supreme Leader has emphasized that indirect negotiations can still continue,’ Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said.
A file photo shows an American A-10 Warthog, as used in recent strikes over Syria
Donald Trump (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) in the White House in Washington DC., United States on April 7, 2025
Trump announced yesterday that direct talks had already begun, ahead of the landmark summit this weekend.
‘We’re having direct talks with Iran. And they’ve started,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
‘I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious.
‘And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it,’ he added.
‘So we are going to see if we can avoid it, but it’s getting to be very dangerous territory, and hopefully those talks will be successful.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .