Diego Garcia was an island exceptionally suited for building military bases. It had a land area of 27 square kilometers and a lagoon covering 125 square kilometers. The lagoon was 10 to 20 meters deep, and the coastline had several excellent harbors capable of berthing multiple large warships.
Diego Garcia had a runway 3,660 meters long and 60 meters wide, along with four hangars and two aprons. These formed the main components of the United States' U.S. Air Force base on Diego Garcia. The base could accommodate more than a hundred military aircraft, including B-2 stealth strategic bombers, B-1B strategic bombers, B-52 strategic bombers, and more.
To maintain the B-2s, the United States had specifically built large hangars on Diego Garcia exclusively for their use. These hangars could automatically regulate temperature and humidity, protecting the B-2s from the high-temperature, high-humidity tropical climate. In other words, the U.S. Air Force base on Diego Garcia was capable of sustaining the long-term deployment of B-2s.
During the Iraq War, strategic bombers taking off from Diego Garcia had flown thousands of kilometers and dropped 730,000 tons of bombs, destroying a large number of Iraqi military targets.
Besides the air base, Diego Garcia also housed a U.S. naval base.
After more than fifty years of development, Diego Garcia's infrastructure had become highly complete. It could provide all kinds of support to carrier battle groups passing through the area and repair damaged vessels. Furthermore, the island's harbor could berth nuclear submarines.
Diego Garcia was also the permanent base of the U.S. military's prepositioned fleet. A prepositioned fleet generally consisted of several large transport ships loaded with vast quantities of military supplies. Should trouble arise around the Indian Ocean, the fleet could swiftly head to the site and provide the converging U.S. forces with weapons, food, and