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| -Land of the Free | |
| In the largest single deployment of stealth bombers in U.S. history, the Pentagon has sent six B-2 ‘Spirit’ aircraft to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. | |
| 2025-04-09 | |
The long-range bombers, which are uniquely suited to evade Iranian air defenses and can carry America’s most potent bunker busting weapons, flew in from Missouri last week in a little noticed operation. The B-2s carry not just bombs, but a message for Iran: “do you see our sword?,” as one retired general told Newsmax this week. President Donald Trump hasn’t been shy in threatening Iran, saying that if Tehran doesn’t close the door on a nuclear capability they will experience “bombing the likes of which they haven’t seen.” “Hell” will “rain down” on the country, Trump has also said. Just today, amidst the stock market meltdown Trump again reiterated his threat, saying that “doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious” — which to the president is undertaking a massive strike. …Blatant as the threat is, the U.S. government has not otherwise publicly acknowledged the bomber buildup. Though B-2 bombers were used to carry out strikes on underground Houthi facilities in Yemen (both under the Biden and Trump administration), the forward deployment of the bombers to the island of Diego Garcia was only reported when commercial satellite images of the airbase there revealed the six on the runway. This is a highly visible threat to Tehran, but at least one party isn’t supposed to notice: the American people. The Pentagon refuses to acknowledge that the deployment is even happening. Trump’s new Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell has only vaguely alluded to “other air assets” being deployed it has announced that two aircraft carriers will stay in the region, the result of a delay in sending one home after its current deployment. According to Google Trends, searches for terms like “B-2” and “war with Iran” have only modestly increased, indicating that public curiosity has been suppressed despite Donald Trump’s many threats to attack his enemies. FLEXING Which brings us to public muscle flexing of the B-2 deployments. I say flexing because what follows isn’t “war,” not full scale war as people think of war. It is more the preamble of the government or the military taking action to “defend” itself, or an occasion by which the Pentagon expresses anger or frustration, or wants to send a signal, even by bombing. This is the realm where Donald Trump’s stream of consciousness or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s need to stick one of his tattoos in someone’s face plays an outsize role. What the boss says in this world is crucially important, even if it is ridiculous, because the war machine has to know at what speed to operate and what thing it should produce. And it needs to know right now, tonight, which is why the B-2s are there in the region in such large numbers. When Trump spews, even his tone influences the military “posture,” as those who are out “in the field” seek to gauge what the White House is planning so that they can anticipate what’s coming. (It is hardly ever organized or clear under any administration.) Thus Trump’s bombast and his body language influences U.S. moves, which influence how the Iranians see the dangers, which can provoke Tehran to flex its own muscles, which then triggers the crisis intelligence alerts, which makes Trump and company speak more loudly which pushes the U.S. military to make moves to get ready, which the Iranians see, which we see and which starts a never-ending cycle. WAR PLANNING …In the world of war planning, when Trump says “I want X,” the order goes down the chain of command through a mind-boggling number of levels, broadening in scope the further the order goes down the chain until someone (and many someones) say ‘We can’t do it.’ That someone could be anyone, but for simplicity’s sake, think of the ultimate someone as “the Pentagon.” The Pentagon says this and the Pentagon says that. If the Pentagon wants to do X, they can move mountains to get it done. And that takes time, and lots of resources. If the Pentagon doesn’t really want to do X, because it thinks the risks are too high or because it thinks the order ill-considered, it has an arsenal of passive aggressive ways of gumming up the works to make sure it doesn’t happen except as it wants. ‘What do you actually mean, Mr. President, sir, that you want to end Tehran?’ the Pentagon asks. ‘Nukes?’ ‘Covert action?’ ‘World War III?’ ‘That looks a lot like Ukraine, or worse, sir. Are you sure?’ You can think of this as calmer heads prevailing, but it is also a game that the Pentagon plays, either to shift responsibility for the outcome to the politicians or as to guide the president’s order so that it ends up looking like it’s asking for what the Pentagon wants, what the Pentagon thinks is possible and will allow it — that is, the Pentagon, not America — to declare victory. Over the past 24 years, the Pentagon has perfected this game of executing the play it wants to run, not what the coach wants. That’s why the U.S. has become very good at bombing targets and conducting aerial assassinations, and in keeping the ball in play. Related: Diego Garcia: 2025-04-08 Second US Carrier Steams Through Indian Ocean To Join Yemen War Diego Garcia: 2025-04-04 Top US general in Israel for talks amid massive American military buildup in region Diego Garcia: 2025-04-03 US airplanes bomb several areas across Yemen Related: B-2 04/08/2025 Second US Carrier Steams Through Indian Ocean To Join Yemen War B-2 04/08/2025 Strike on 'Houthi missile formation' creates new problems for US B-2 04/06/2025 Houthis claim US fired $200 million worth of ammunition at Yemen, but failed to inflict meaningful military damage | |
| Posted by:NoMoreBS |
| #4 There are 19 B2's. Odds are only half of them are O/R at any given time for a combat mission. That'd leave 3-4 operational not in Diego. And of the ones in Diego, how many days can they sit on the tarmac before they start to spontaneously become AOG. Figure 4 available for a mission of 6 are on deck. |
| Posted by: Clem+Elmish4239 2025-04-09 17:58 |
| #3 Only six? I feel like 12 would send a stronger message. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2025-04-09 17:16 |
| #2 4,293 miles as the crow flies from Diego to Beijing - but 6,500 miles to Lop Nor and 8,000 miles to the targets near Qinling - lots of lead time there ... After constantly staging B52's etc on Diego for the last 40 years wouldn't you anticipate that some nefarious type had wargamed a solution to that threat, just on a contingency basis |
| Posted by: Clem+Elmish4239 2025-04-09 13:34 |
| #1 Distance Diego-Garcia → Tehran: 3,270.78 mi (5,263.81 km) Maximum speed: 630+/- mph Cruise speed: 560+/- mph Range: 6,900 miles without refueling. Approx Flight time to Tehran: 6 hrs Can carry 40,000lbs bombs, or 12+ B83 (1.2MT) nuclear weapons. Using this Nuke weapon calculator to see what just one B83 would do to Tehran Fireball radius: 1.14 km (4.11 km²), Moderate blast damage radius (5 psi): 7.47 km (175 km²), At 5 psi overpressure, most residential buildings collapse, Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns): 13.2 km (547 km²), Estimated fatalities: 2,641,070, Estimated injuries: 3,752,110, |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2025-04-09 05:38 |