U.S. Surges Strategic Bomber Deployments in Europe For Long Range Strikes on Iran: Nearby Air Bases Destroyed in Missile Attacks

The U.S. Air Force has continued to expand its strategic bomber deployments in Europe since the country launched an attack on Iran on February 28, with Iran’s large scale missile and drone attacks on U.S. air bases across the Middle East having made longer range strikes from bases outside the region preferable. Five B-1B bombers arrived at Royal Air Force Fairford in the United Kingdom on March 7-8, and another three at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Three B-52H bombers then landed at Fairford on March 9. Additional bombers are also expected to deploy to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Although the B-1B and B-52H have intercontinental ranges, and can attack Iranian targets from bases on the continental United States, forward deployment significantly reduces maintenance requirements and allows sorties to be generated at much greater intensity. 

Iran has notably for decades imposed a moratorium on its ballistic missile program, meaning it has not fielded ballistic missiles with ranges of over 2,500 kilometres, which prevents it from striking bomber bases in Europe. This contrasts to other potential adversaries, namely North Korea, China, Russia and Belarus which all field intermediate range missile types that can threaten far away bomber bases. Thus while Iranian forces have caused tremendous damage at U.S. air bases near Iranian territory, such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which has seriously disrupted fighter operations against it, its ability to target bases hosting bombers further afield remains limited. The U.S. Air Force’s newest bomber type, the B-2, is expected to play a much more limited role in the war effort due to multiple factors, including its inability to be based outside the United States, the very limited numbers in service, poor availability rates, and extreme shortages of GBU-57 penetrative bombs, which limits their utility. The B-1B fleet has itself been downsized considerably since the beginning of the decade, allowing some of the aircraft to be cannibalised for spare parts to address issues of poor availability rates. 

B-52H and B-1B bombers are not expected to be survivable inside Iranian airspace, but serve as cruise missile carriers to launch strikes from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres beyond the country’s territory. A pair of either type of bomber can delivery the same quantity of firepower as a full fighter squadron. The aircraft have been used extensively for offensive operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, including for strikes on Syrian government targets in 2018, and operations in Afghanistan from 2001-2021. Although Iran has placed orders for Su-35 long range fighters, which integrate R-37M long range air-to-air missiles that were specifically designed to counter strategic bomber attacks, the fact that these fighters have not been delivered limits Iran’s ability to respond to bomber strikes. Iran’s lack of missiles or drones capable of attacking air bases in Western Europe, however, remains the most significant constraint on its ability to respond.