Secretary of Defense Mark Esper sent a clear message to China on Tuesday when he deployed three B-2 bombers from the 509th Bomb Wing to Diego Garcia.

An island in the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles south of India, Diego Garcia hosts a British military base. But that base primarily serves as a logistics and strike hub for the U.S. military. In 2003, the Air Force upgraded Diego Garcia’s facilities to provide shelter requirements specific to the B-2. The first point to note is that of geography.