The US military is planning to increase bombers "pulses" over Iran and deploy additional fighter squadrons to the region.
The UK took days before it opted to allow US aircraft to position themselves at Diego Garcia for strikes on Iran.
The US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said it was “unfortunate” the UK did not allow earlier access to its controversial Diego Garcia air base, adding that air and missile strikes over Iran will intensify in the coming days.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced criticism at home and overseas for the apparent slow pace to react to the unfolding Iran-Middle East crisis.
On 4 March, US President Donald Trump went public with his dissatisfaction over Starmer refusal to allow US bombers access to Diego Garcia, which is a strategically located air base in the Indian Ocean.
“This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,” President Trump said at the time.
Providing a campaign update alongside CENTCOM commander Adm Brad Cooper late in the evening of 5 March, Secretary Hegseth said that it was “unfortunate that the Brits didn’t from day one say, ‘go ahead and have access’”, referring to Diego Garcia.
“But we got there [in the end],” Secretary Hegseth added.
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With access to the UK base at Diego Garcia now provided, US forces will continue their surge into the region to continue strikes on Iran. This would include “more bomber pulses” and fighter squadrons, said Hegseth.
Meanwhile, the US military has struck nearly 200 targets over the past 72 hours, including B-2 bomber strikes using heavy penetrator bombs to strike subterranean targets in Iran, according to US CENTCOM.
Adm Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said that Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on countries in the Middle East had decreased by 90% from the opening 24 hours of the conflict.
In addition, drone attacks had dropped by 83%, Cooper stated.
Secretary Hegseth also said that Iranian claims to have shot down a USAF F-15 fighter over Iran were false, as were reports of more than 500 US fatalities during the week-long war. Such reports were part of a disinformation campaign from Tehran, Hegseth said, and likely directed at domestic audiences.
It is notable that US CENTCOM has sought to quickly debunk Iranian claims of strikes on US aircraft carriers, destroyers, and other military assets, as the information war runs parallel to the physical conflict.
Social media platform such as X are being used by US CENTCOM to provide what it claims to be proof debunking Iranian claims, while publishing montages of US strikes.
Of interest was a claim by Adm Cooper on 5 March that the US military had struck and set fire to the Iranian Navy drone carrier. However, CENTCOM previously claimed on 3 March to have hit the same vessel, as reported earlier in the week by Naval Technology.
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