An aerial view of the island of Diego Garcia (U.S. Navy)
The Air Force has deployed F-15 fighter jets for a force protection mission on Diego Garcia, Pacific Air Forces confirmed Tuesday.
The strategically important island in the Indian Ocean has served as a base for U.S. bombers during the Pentagon’s airstrikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that began earlier this year.
The War Zone website, citing an anonymous defense official, reported Monday that six F-15s have been working out of Diego Garcia.
Six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, along with a C-17 Globemaster airlifter and several refueling tankers, were deployed there this spring, the Indo-Pacific Defense Forum reported May 2. The magazine is published by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, whose area of responsibility includes Diego Garcia.
At least some of the B-2s returned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on May 9, according to photos posted online by the Defense Department.
A B-2 Spirit bomber returns to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., from a deployment to Diego Garcia on May 9, 2025. (Devan Halstead/U.S. Air Force)
Air and Space Forces Magazine reported Friday that four B-52H Stratofortress bombers had been rotated in to replace the B-2s.
The Air Force and INDOPACOM declined to comment on the presence of B-52s on Diego Garcia. The island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Under a lease with the United Kingdom that expires in 2036, the U.S. operates Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, which hosts units from the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Space Force, along with the royal navy.
The island served as a key logistical hub during America’s 20-year military intervention in Afghanistan and was a launch point for bombing missions during the conflict.
The island is once again playing a central role for the U.S. military in the wake of the October 2023 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas.
That conflict has heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 aerial drones and missiles on April 13 in response to an Israeli airstrike two weeks earlier that killed senior Iranian military officers in an Iranian consular building in Syria.
“These developments marked an unprecedented escalation in the confrontation between Iran and Israel,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations in an April 23 update on its Global Conflict Tracker.
“In addition to concerns about direct U.S.-Iran conflict, existing proxy warfare in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq is at risk of escalating as regional tensions mount, placing thousands of U.S. troops and U.S. interests in the Middle East in danger,” the update states.
