The war is now in its 10th day, and Israel and the United States continue to trade blows with Iran, with further missile and drone strikes across the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. military’s ability to execute more rapid heavy airstrikes against Iranian targets was stepped up further today, with the arrival at RAF Fairford in England of three U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers. The aircraft are from the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota.
The bombers arrived at Fairford after U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer approved so-called defensive U.S. actions against Iranian targets from British bases. This includes striking Iranian missile sites prior to them launching attacks.
The B-52s are part of a growing fleet of U.S. bombers at Fairford. The base received a single B-1B Lancer on Friday, and another two of the swing-wing bombers arrived on Saturday.As well as making use of RAF Fairford to strike Iran, the change in U.K. government policy covers Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Satellite imagery from today that TWZ has reviewed via Planet Labs shows no sign of bombers on the island, but heavy transport aircraft continue to show up there, along with the handful of tankers and five F-16s currently operating from the Indian Ocean outpost.
B-52s have already flown missions against Iran from bases in the United States, delivering AGM-158 JASSM stealthy cruise missiles. These missiles would have launched from outside Iranian airspace, likely over Iraq or another friendly Arab country. You can read more about the implications of standoff strikes such as these in our previous analysis of the enduring Iranian air defense threat.
As we have discussed repeatedly in recent weeks, having the bombers forward deployed to England and/or Diego Garcia will drastically increase sortie rates and decrease wear-and-tear on the precious bomber fleet compared to flying from the U.S. and back. This will become even more relevant if the B-1 and B-52 force move from making standoff strikes to direct attacks on Iranian targets, even if just over limited parts of the country where air supremacy is more guaranteed.
U.S. Central Command has previously released a video confirming the employment of ground-launched Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles as part of the strikes on Iran. Now, there appears to be evidence that at least some of the missiles are being fired from Kuwait. We have seen another video showing a HIMARS launcher fire from a beach in Bahrain, as well.
Among the targets of recent U.S. strikes are what is left of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy. There have been more attacks against Iranian vessels in coastal waters, one of them being struck while anchored off the coast of Bandar Lengeh earlier today. The warship in question has been widely identified as a Shahid Soleimani class missile corvette. One of these unusual catamaran vessels had been sunk in an earlier U.S. strike.