Diego Garcia: The Indian Ocean base the US can use to target Iran

Editor's note: This piece was first published in March 2022, before Israel attacked Iran on 13 June 2025.

Diego Garcia, 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 the US has used this tiny atoll, which is roughly 700km south of the Maldives, for decades to project military power in the region. 

The US military confirmed earlier this week that it has been amassing B-2 bombers, stealth aircraft used for precision strikes that can evade air-defence systems, at the joint US-UK military base.

Earlier this week, open-source satellite information provided by Planet Labs showed three B-2 bombers at the US base.

By Friday, other open-source accounts shared imagery suggesting the arrival of two additional planes.

Satellite imagery has also shown multiple KC-135 refuelling aircraft at the base.

Where is Diego Garcia?

Diego Garcia, which is only 10km by 20km including the huge lagoon at its centre, is the largest island 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.

During the 1960s, London retreated from its colonies but wanted to maintain a few strategic location so it could still exercise power on the world stage.

In the Eastern Mediterranean, the UK carved out a base on Cyprus. And in the Indian Ocean, it pressured Mauritius, a former British colony, to sell the Chagos Islands for just £3m.

To build a military base on Diego Garcia, the British forcibly displaced around 1,500 islanders without compensation into slums in Mauritius and the Seychelles.

In 1966, the Washington and London sealed a secret deal: the US got a 50-year lease on the base with a 20-year right to extension, while in return the UK got cheaper American ballistic missiles.

Has the US used Diego Garcia before?

Over the years, Diego Garcia has become critical to US power projection in the wider Middle East and Indo-Pacific as the go-to base at short notice.

During the late 1990s, for example, the US wanted to conduct sporadic bombing runs against Iraq, then under Saddam Hussein.

Saudi Arabia, which lies across the Persian Gulf, dragged its feet about allowing the US to launch warplanes from its airfields - so US military strategists drafted plans to fly B-52 bombers from in Diego Garcia instead.

American bombers flew directly from Diego Garcia to hit targets in Iraq and Afghanistan during the “War on Terror”, when Diego Garcia was used for refuelling.

The Gulf states, until recently, imposed strict limitations on the US using their air bases to strike the Houthis in Yemen, a US defence official told MEE.

And while the Trump administration has been allowed to use air fields in the Middle East for its recent attacks on the Houthis, allowing the American bombers to fly from Gulf states against Iran would be far riskier for the region's monarchs. 

Diego Garcia made headlines late last year after London agreed to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, under an agreement which gave the UK an initial 99-year lease over the island. In February, US President Donald Trump signalled he would support the deal, but it has attracted criticism from US conservatives and is yet to be signed.

Why does Diego Garcia matter when it comes to Iran?

Rising tensions with Iran are putting Diego Garcia back in the spotlight.

The build-up 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 strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, who are aligned with Iran, in what many analysts see as a signal to Iran.

The B-2s are capable of carrying 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrators, better known as “bunker-buster” bombs, that would be needed to penetrate Iran’s nuclear sites deep underground.

Being based at Diego Garcia puts the bombers within 4,000km of Houthi targets and 5,300km  of Iran - well within their refuelling range of approximately 11,000km.

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.