Financial Times December 12 2002
B-2 base ready for Iraq action
By Tim Ripley
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The US Air Force has set up a forward operating base for its 'bat-winged' B-2 Stealth bombers, which would spearhead any strike against Baghdad, on the British-owned Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Satellite imagery published by the globalsecurity.org arms control website this week shows two of the portable 'climate controlled' hangers, needed to support the B-2s when they are deployed away from their home base in Missouri, set up on the 67 acre aircraft ramp at Diego Garcia's giant airbase.
The hangers protect the top-secret stealth coatings of the B-2s that help make them 'invisible' to detection by radar from being damaged by rain or tropical humidity. Huge air conditioning systems are fitted to the hangers to keep the bombers in tip-top condition.
Leaks from Washington had suggested that the US was planning to set up the first overseas base for the B-2s on Diego Garcia but recent commercial satellite imagery provided by the ImageSat International company at the end of last month confirms that the USAF has actually put in place a key element of its strike force for any war with Iraq.
The satellite imagery does not actually show any of the $500 million aircraft on the island, indicating that the first strike of any attack on Baghdad will be flown from the B-2's home base at Whiteman, Missouri. The aircraft will then fly onto their new Indian Ocean base to refuel and re-arm for more raids. During the Afghan war last year, the B-2s carried out a 'hot-pit' refuelling and crew change at Diego Garcia but could not remain their permanently because of the lack of the special hangers. A permanent forward operating base for the B-2s is also being build in the UK at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, but is not yet complete.
Diego Garcia is already home to seven B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers and seven KC-135 refuelling tanks. They regularly fly bombing missions over Afghanistan in support of US ground troops hunting Al Qaeda remnants but are expected to be rapidly re-assigned to support any B-2 strike on Iraq with long-range air launched cruise missiles.
Baghdad is just under 3,000 miles from Diego Garcia making it an ideal forward operating base for USAF strategic bombers, which can reach a wide range of targets in Africa and Asia from the base. B-52s have struck at Iraq several times over the past twelve years from the base. The US has leased the base from Britain, since the late 1960s. It has built a huge runway and airbase infrastructure, as well as moorings for a fleet of more than 20 cargo ships with army equipment in the island's lagoon.
As operations against Afghanistan ramped up last autumn, the US surged men and equipment into the island. A 30 acre temporary camp for personnel was built and the B-52s became almost permanent residents.
By a quirk of the island's legal status a Royal Navy officer is nominally in command of the US forces based there. Legally the US would have to secure the permission of the British government before the B-2s could be launched against Baghdad from the island but few people imagine Tony Blair would refuse if George Bush came asking.
Tim Ripley is a research associate at the Centre of Defence and International Security Studies at Lancaster University.
© Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2002
