Iran conflict highlights strategic role of Diego Garcia as US shifts logistics there

In response to an Iranian attack on a major U.S. installation in Bahrain, the Pentagon shifted its logistical hub to Diego Garcia, a British-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean, creating a roughly 2,200-mile supply corridor that avoids exposed coastal facilities. James Tumbridge, attorney general for the self-described Chagossian government-in-exile, told one outlet that this change underscores the base’s essential contribution to regional security for the United Kingdom, United States and allied forces, and cautioned that a proposed sovereignty handover to Mauritius could threaten that access.

He appealed to the incoming British prime minister to maintain the current arrangement, emphasizing that only the UK can decide the islands’ fate. Diego Garcia has historically supported carrier strike groups, including the USS Abraham Lincoln, and was the target of two Iranian ballistic missiles in March, one of which was intercepted. The Abraham Lincoln’s deployment nears nine months, with a new carrier slated to replace it, while U.S. Central Command commander Brad Cooper met with crew aboard the vessel. The episode brings the Chagos sovereignty dispute to the forefront of broader regional security calculations.