Diego Garcia: The Indian Ocean base the US can use to target Iran
The air base the US may use if it decides to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities is a speck of an island in the Indian Ocean that few associate with the Middle East but that the US has used for decades to project military power in the region.
Throughout this week, the US has been amassing B-2 bombers, stealth aircraft used for precision strikes that can evade air defence systems, at Diego Garcia, an island that's roughly 700 kilometres south of the Maldives, which is home to a joint US-UK military base.
The US military confirmed earlier this week that it had deployed B-2 bombers to the island. Open-source satellite information provided by Planet Labs earlier this week showed three B-2 bombers on the US base. On Friday, other open-source accounts shared imagery suggesting at least five B-2 bombers were on the base.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The US’s footprint there can be traced back to the waning days of the British Empire.
In the 1960s, Britain was pulling out of its colonies but wanted to maintain a few strategic chips on the map to remain a power on the world stage. In the Eastern Mediterranean, they carved out a base on Cyprus. In the Indian Ocean, they pressured Mauritius, a former British colony, to sell the Chagos Islands for just £3m.
To build a military base on Chagos’ largest island, Diego Garcia, the British forcibly displaced around 1,500 native islanders without compensation into slums in Mauritius and the Seychelles.
The US sealed a 50-year lease on the base with a 20-year right to extension in 1966, as part of a secret agreement that saw the US reduce the cost of American ballistic missiles to the UK in return for the base.
A fail-safe during Gulf tensions
The base has been critical to US power projection in the wider Middle East and Indo-Pacific, becoming the go-to base when the US is in a pinch.
For example, in the late 1990s, the US was conducting sporadic bombing runs against Saddam Hussein’s military, but Saudi Arabia dragged its feet about allowing the US to launch warplanes from their airfields.
American military strategists drafted plans for B-52 bombers based in Diego Garcia to bomb Saddam’s Iraq.
The Gulf states, until recently, had all imposed strict limitations on the US using their air bases to strike the Houthis in Yemen, a US defence official told MEE.
The Trump administration was able to obtain permission during its recent attacks on the Houthis, but allowing the US to bomb Iran directly from their states would be riskier for the Gulf monarchs.
American bombers flew directly from Diego Garcia to hit targets in Iraq and Afghanistan during the “War on Terror”, and Diego Garcia was used for refuelling. This week, satellite imagery has shown multiple KC-135 refuelling aircraft at the base.
Diego Garcia made headlines late last year after Britain’s Labour government agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The agreement gave the UK an initial 99-year lease over Diego Garcia. In February, US President Donald Trump signalled he would support the deal, but it has not been completed and has been criticised by conservative US lawmakers.
Rising tensions with Iran are putting Diego Garcia back in the spotlight.
Iran-US brinkmanship
The buildup of B-2 bombers comes as the US and Tehran both engage in a show of force ahead of potential nuclear talks. The US has already launched deadly strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, who are aligned with Iran, in what many analysts see as a signal to Tehran.
The B-2s are capable of carrying 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs that would be needed to penetrate Iran’s nuclear sites deep underground, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Their basing at Diego Garcia puts the bombers within 4,000 kilometres from Houthi territory and 5,300 kilometres of Iran, well within their refuelling range of approximately 11,000 kilometres.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “My big preference - and I don't say this through strength or weakness - my big preference is, we work it out with Iran. But if we don't work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”
Trump’s comments came a day after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Tehran had responded through intermediary Oman to a letter from Trump calling for nuclear talks. Araghchi said indirect talks with the US would continue, but Iran was “firm on not engaging in direct negotiations under maximum pressure and military threats".
Axios reported previously that Trump’s March letter set a two-month window for talks or warned of military action.