US moves 30 jets as Iran attack speculation grows
The jet movements come amid reports that the US has also moved an aircraft carrier - the USS Nimitz, from the South China Sea towards the Middle East. The Reuters news agency reported that a planned event involving the ship in Vietnam was cancelled after what the US embassy in Hanoi called an "emergent operational requirement".
MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking website, showed that the USS Nimitz's last location was in the Malacca Strait heading towards Singapore early on Tuesday. The Nimitz carries a contingent of fighter jets and is escorted by several guided missile destroyers.
The US has also moved F-16, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets to bases in the Middle East, three defence officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The tanker planes moved to Europe over the past several days can be used to re-fuel these jets.
Earlier on Tuesday, Vice-President JD Vance suggested that the US could intervene to support Israel's campaign, writing on social media that Trump "may decide he needs to take further action" to end Iran's nuclear programme.
Tehran is believed to run two principal underground enrichment sites. Natanz has already been hit by Israel, and Fordo is buried deep within a mountain complex near the city of Qom.
To penetrate the facility, the US would likely have to use GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) munitions, two senior Western military officers told BBC Verify. MOPs are huge, 30,000lb (13,600kg) bombs also known as "bunker busters".
The bomb is the only conventional weapon of its kind that is thought to be capable of breaching up to 200ft (60m) of concrete. Only the B-2 stealth bomber can carry the munitions.
Recently, the US has had a squadron of B-2 bombers at its base on the island of Diego Garcia. While the island is some 2,400 miles from Iran's southern coastline, their location on Diego Garcia would put them well within striking of range of Iran.
"You would be able to maintain a sustained operation from [Diego Garcia] far more efficiently," Air Marshall Greg Bagwell - a former RAF deputy operations chief - told BBC Verify. "You could literally have them round the clock operating."
Satellite images first showed B-2 bombers had been stationed on Diego Garcia at the end of March, but the most recent imagery from the island no longer shows the bombers present.
Vice-Admiral Mellet said he would expect to see the bombers on the island ahead of any operation targeting Iran and called their absence "a missing piece of the jigsaw".
Air Marshall Bagwell agreed. But he noted that B-2s have been known to operate for 24 hours at a time and could launch from the continental US if the White House decided to launch a strike.
"They've taken away any means for Iran to now defend itself, which obviously leaves any military or even the nuclear targets pretty much at the mercy of whatever Israel wants to do to it."
Additional reporting by Merlyn Thomas.
