Six B-2 bombers lay in wait on the Island of Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean; the massive import of firepower was meant to set the Houthis and Iranians straight, but has the move succeeded?
The deployment of six Northrop B-2 Spirit bombers to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean was meant to be seen as a serious show of force. The six bombers, each with a $1.1 billion price tag, accounted for nearly one-third of the United States Air Force’s entire fleet of flying wing aircraft.
The half-a-dozen B-2s are well within striking distance of Houthi positions in Yemen as well as Iran, a fact noted on Wednesday evening by United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“We’ll let them decide,” Hegseth told reporters when asked if the aircraft were meant to send a strong message to Tehran, Reuters reported.
“It’s a great asset… it sends a message to everybody,” the Pentagon chief told reporters as he visited Panama. “President Trump’s been clear… Iran should not have a nuclear bomb.”
B-2 Bomber Build-Up in Diego Garcia Continues
In addition to the B-2s, the United States is deploying a second Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier to the region. Yet, what message it intends to send seems less clear. A single-carrier strike group is already powerful, and two would be overkill in a confrontation with Iran and the Houthis, right?
The same has been said of the Spirits.
“B-2 bombers have been employed to strike Houthi targets in Yemen in the past, [but] most experts say use of the stealthy bomber is overkill there,” Reuters reported, adding,
“However, the B-2 is equipped to carry America’s the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to destroy targets deep underground. That is the weapon that experts say could be used to strike Iran’s nuclear program.”
Iran Responds to the B-2 Bomber
All of that is true, but the Tehran Times took a different view in its reporting on Wednesday. It noted that the United States has carried out multiple strikes on the Ansarallah missile complexes, “burrowed deep into Yemen’s unforgiving mountains.”
Still, it added, “The Pentagon hailed the strikes as a triumph: sixty-five dead, key sites hit, a general command HQ in Sanaa leveled. Yet, Ansarallah persists, downing a third U.S. MQ-9 Reaper by April 6, and continues to defy the superpower that vowed to crush them.”
“Satellite images from late March show collapsed tunnel entrances, yes, but Ansarallah didn’t flinch; they carved new ones,” the state media outlet noted.
“The takeaway is stark: the U.S. military threat, for all its high-tech swagger, isn’t the unstoppable force it claims to be. If Ansarallah, outmatched in resources but not in spirit, can endure the B-2 onslaught, what’s to stop Iran from brushing off America’s warnings?”
Now, much of this can be dismissed as hyperbole and propaganda, but the fact remains that, after more than a year and a half of engaging the U.S. Navy in the region, the Houthis are still going strong. The Iranian-backed militant group hasn’t been weakened, at least not to the same degree as Hezbollah and Hamas, Tehran’s other clients in the Middle East.
Those groups faced an onslaught from Israel that included boots on the literal ground.
The United States isn’t about to deploy troops to Yemen but instead has conducted missile strikes from sea and bombing missions from the air. Perhaps it is finally time to employ the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator on the Houthi positions because six bombers sitting on the flight line may look impressive; still, it is just an expensive photo opportunity.
The B-2s might be in a museum because the message isn’t received.
As the Iranian news outlet further states, “Iran’s underground complexes, from Natanz to Fordow, outstrip Yemen’s in-depth and design. If the United States can’t crack Ansarallah’s tunnels, Tehran’s strategists must figure they can neutralize the danger with fortified bunkers, smarter defenses, and a page from Yemen’s playbook.”
Thus, it may be time to put the bunker-busting bombs to the test.
Put up or shut up.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image: Shutterstock/ Alex Izeman.
