USAF deployerer 6 stk. B-52 til Diego Garcia i Det Indiske Hav - Tyler Rogoway

The airbase on Diego Garcia, part of America's sprawling military outpost in British Indian Ocean Territory, was once a bustling hub of bomber and tanker activity during the years that followed the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unbelievably, for years the U.S. the Air Force flew thousands of sorties from the remote locale some located 2,000 miles from Afghanistan and 3,000 miles from Iraq in what had to of been one of the most boneheadedly inefficient air combat operations of all time. Eventually, they realized basing these aircraft in the Persian Gulf, far closer to the action, would provide way more persistent combat capabilities, save lakes of jet fuel, and preserve precious flight time on America's aging bomber fleet. Now, after its aprons stood largely empty aside from the regular logistical and sporadic global airpower flights, American bombers are heading back to the atoll, and for good reason—it's out of reach of Iranian ballistic missiles. 


Diego Garcia

The move comes as part of the continued build-up of U.S. forces in the Middle East and increasingly dire rhetoric between Washington D.C. and Tehran following the deadly strike on Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani last week.