U.S. Air Force Masses Large B-2 Stealth Bomber Fleet on Diego Garcia: Yemen in the Crosshairs

The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least seven B-2 strategic bombers to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, with satellite imagery showing that at least three C-17 cargo planes and 10 aerial refuelling tankers arrived at the territory in 48 hours from March 23-25. The remote British-controlled island in the Indian Ocean positions the aircraft to generate sorties at higher rates against targets in either Yemen or Iran, with U.S.-led strikes against Ansurullah Coalition forces in the former of the two countries continuing to intensify. B-2s were previously used to strike Yemeni targets on October 17, when the aircraft were used to launch large scale strikes against five targets using bunker-buster bombs. Then U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin referred to 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.” Targets of the B-2 attacks include three barrack areas and associated deep bunkers, each of which originally housed a Soviet Scud missile brigade from the 1980s onwards, and in the 2000s were equipped with North Korean Hwasong-5/6 missiles.

B-2 attacks in October were speculated to have usedGBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, which are too heavy for almost any other combat aircraft to carry. This would have marked the combat debut of the bomb, which has a unique ability to penetrate some of the best hardened and most sensitive military sites across the world without crossing the nuclear threshold. For deeper fortifications, multiple GBU-57s can use their GPS precision guidance o ‘layer in’ multiple warheads on a precise location, with each ‘digging’ deeper than its the one before it to achieve deeper penetration. This is considered particularly critical to achieving U.S. and broader Western Bloc objectives of neutralising the Ansuruallah Coalition’s military strength, as key Yemeni military and industrial targets are fortified deeply underground. Following the Western-backed overthrow of the Syrian government in December 2024, and the cutting off of supplies to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, the Ansurullah Coalition remains the only other significant military forces in the Arab Middle East that is outside Western influence. Syria’s defeat has allowed attentions and resources to be concentrated on engaging Yemeni targets.