US B-1B strategic bombers have returned to the military outpost of Diego Garcia for the first time since 2006, according to monitoring website the Drive.

The aircraft arrived on the island on October 17 as part of a Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Bomber Task Force (BTF) mission, it said.

The deployment to Diego Garcia is seen as “critical” by the US military as its continuous bomber presence on the island of Guam officially ended in April, after 16 years.

“The [US] Air Force is clearly doing what it can to remind adversaries that while their bomber forces may be gone from the region, they should not be forgotten,” the website stated.

Pacific Air Forces commander General CQ Brown Jr said: “From confronting invisible threats of a global pandemic to addressing military aggression and coercive activities, we remain a lethal, innovative and interoperable force focused on a shared vision of upholding a free and open lndo-Pacific.”

The renewed regional presence is in line with the US National Defence Strategy’s objectives of “strategic predictability and operational unpredictability.”

US Air Force Global Strike Command commander General Tim Ray said the rapid deployment of air power “assures we can provide overwhelming force anywhere, any time in support of American interests or our allies and partners.”

The move comes as the US ratchets up hostilities with both China and Russia with an increased number of deliberately provocative incidents.

Russian jets have been scrambled on two separate occasions in the past week to escort US bombers away from its territory.

US Department of Defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ross Hobbs, 37th Bomb Squadron director of operations, said the missions “give us the opportunity to showcase the unmatched range, speed, and lethality of the B-1.

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago, which was separated from Mauritius in 1965, when it was still a British colony.

Britain purchased it for £3 million, but Mauritius claimed that it was pressed into the sale, which was made in return for independence.

The British government evicted the entire population of the Chagos Islands before inviting the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia. The Chagos islanders continue to campaign for their right to return.

In February last year the UN’s International Court of Justice ruled that Britain should leave the Chagos Islands “as rapidly as possible.”

Three months later the UN general assembly voted overwhelmingly for the return of the islands.

But an official statement from the British Foreign Office said: “This is an advisory opinion, not a judgement.”