How Trump Used a Remote Island Base To Warn Iran

Newsweek

7 hours ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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Satellite imagery this week captured the drawdown of U.S. forces at the remote Diego Garcia naval base in the Indian Ocean, after the joint British-American military facility had played a central role in the Pentagon's campaign of signals and deception in the lead-up to U.S. airstrikes against Iran.
In late March, analysts studying open-source imagery—like those taken by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites—began noticing an increase in U.S. Air Force deployments to the coral atoll amid tensions in the Middle East. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later revealed that they were part of U.S. efforts to deter Iran and its proxies.
The U.S. Defense Department and Iran's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to separate written requests for comment.
Why It Matters
Diego Garcia sits in the center of the Indian Ocean, a strategic, cross-regional location—2,000-3,000 miles from both Iran and China—that is key to U.S. power projection in both halves of the vast Indo-Pacific region. Permanently staffed by only a few hundred British and American troops, the remote island base allows the United States to rapidly respond to crises by pre-positioning naval and air assets near possible flashpoints.
The base received public attention in spring amid a spike in U.S.-Iran tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, which was among the list of disputes U.S. President Donald Trump had sought to resolve upon his return to office.
With diplomacy all but stalled between Washington and Tehran after the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites amid clashes between Israel and Iran in June, Trump has threatened to strike again if Iran's leaders don't return to the negotiating table for another nuclear deal.
What To Know
Unlike U.S. bases in Qatar and nearby states, Diego Garcia's remoteness put it beyond most Iranian missile capabilities, making it an ideal staging area. In the past, it has been used as a launchpad for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Later it became a hub for operations across the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.
But when Trump gave the order to strike Iran in June, the attack did not originate from Diego Garcia, with the Pentagon instead opting to fly seven B-2 bombers from Missouri in a move that largely avoided detection and therefore maximized surprise.
A new ESA photograph captured on Monday, rendered in false color to avoid dense clouds, showed the end of Diego Garcia's temporary role as a tool for military signaling. Empty parking aprons were seen where U.S. jet fighters and strategic bombers once stood as clear warnings to Tehran.
At its height in May, the surge in forces to the Indian Ocean base included F-15 fighter aircraft, B‑2 and B‑52 bombers, KC‑135 tankers and C‑17 military transport planes, according to publicly available analysis at the time, which preceded the two-week campaign of Israeli airstrikes on Iran's military infrastructure and Iranian ballistic attacks on Israeli territory.
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"We probably ensured that Diego Garcia was ready, but ultimately, the president decided on a different plan that was really focused on trying to preserve security," retired U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, the former head of the U.S. Central Command and now a researcher at the Middle East Institute, told Newsweek.
In a mission relying on deception, aerial refueling and near-total radio silence to strike Iran's nuclear sites, the B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base flew a round-trip bombing sortie that lasted more than 30 hours, the Pentagon later said. A separate group of suspected decoy aircraft were routed to Guam and successfully mislead observers about U.S. intensions.
"These decoys were probably to get Iran to refocus their attention on threats coming from Diego Garcia rather than from the U.S.," Shahin Berenji, an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told Newsweek.
Operation assessments indicated that Iran's nuclear facilities were damaged and its enrichment program likely delayed by several months to years. However, the threat from Iran is not over, the subject-matter experts said, stressing that the visible reduction of U.S. forces at Diego Garcia did not necessarily reflect a shift in priorities in the CENTCOM area.
What People Are Saying
U.S. Army General (retired) Joseph Votel, former CENTCOM commander and current research fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Newsweek: "I think that the threat of Iran will continue to drive U.S. interests and U.S. military strategy in the region for the foreseeable future. [Iran's enrichment capability] certainly has been delayed…but it's not completely destroyed, and Iran has not taken off on a different path. So I think we have to continue to be concerned about that."
Shahin Berenji, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College's Strategy and Policy Department, told Newsweek: "I would argue that given what happened in this past crisis, just because the U.S. doesn't have prepositioned forces in Diego Garcia, it doesn't mean it can't strike Iran with strategic bombers from the homeland."
Berenji said his views were his own and did not represent those of the college.
What Happens Next
Diego Garcia will remain a key strategic hub for the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, even if it isn't used in every operation.