Multiple B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, deployed from an Air Force base in Missouri, flew west over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, according to a U.S. official, in a likely show of force to Iran as President Donald Trump contemplates using military force to attack a key nuclear facility there. The aircraft’s likely destination is either Andersen Air Force Base in Guam or a military installation on the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. Both bases have hosted strategic bombers, including the B-2 and B-52, in recent months.

The B-2, with its distinctive bat-wing shape, is the world’s only aircraft capable of employing the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bomb called a Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The MOP was designed specifically for strikes on targets buried deep underground.

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Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, which is the focus of Trump’s rumination, was built a couple hundred feet into the side of a mountain. Each B-2 can carry up to two MOPs, and current and former defense officials have said it’s likely multiple strikes would be necessary in any attempt to destroy the facility.

Information about the bombers’ movement was limited, with numerous Pentagon officials saying they had been told to direct questions to the White House. White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The B-2s’ deployment from Whiteman Air Force Base, about 70 miles east of Kansas City, marked the latest in rapid series of developments since Israeli forces earlier this month began a robust campaign of strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and scientists, along with several prominent military leaders. Tehran, though weakened, has responded aggressively, firing missiles into Israel while threatening to strike American interests throughout the Middle East if the U.S. military gets involved.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Washington to help finish the job. Trump, in response, has vacillated between bellicose threats and calls for restraint.

In the span of a week, the U.S. commander in chief bounded from warning all of Tehran to evacuate to demanding the Iranian government’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” while threatening that its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would be targeted, too, unless Iran’s nuclear program was shuttered.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that he’d delivered an “ultimate ultimatum” to Iran. A day later he shifted again, releasing a statement saying he would wait as long as two weeks before deciding whether to attack — giving more time for diplomacy, he said.

The president spent Friday night and much of Saturday at his golf club in New Jersey. He was due back at the White House on Saturday evening for a meeting with his national security team, according to his official schedule.

The B-2s’ departure coincided with other notable activity Friday night when, between 10:09 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Central time, eight KC-135 aerial refueling tankers were observed by flight-tracking websites having taken off from Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma. Each took a similar path toward Whiteman, several hundred miles to the northeast.

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As the eight tankers turned over Whiteman and began to head west, each following the same route, publicly available air traffic control audio picked up a flight controller clearing the tankers — call sign “Nitro” — to conduct aerial refueling for other aircraft flying under the call sign “Mytee.” The “Mytee” call sign has in recent years been associated with strategic bombers, including the B-2 Spirit, as well as the B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress, according to photos and videos posted online by flight spotters, open-source researchers, and defense industry trade publications.

The only bombers housed at Whiteman are B-2 stealth bombers flown by the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing and the Air National Guard’s 131st Bomb Wing, according to official military websites.

Shortly after passing Whiteman, the tankers returned home to Oklahoma, flight tracking data showed, a likely indication they had completed their mission. Other tanker planes were observed later Saturday first off the coast of California, near Travis Air Force Base, and then near Hawaii, as the B-2s continued west.

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Trump’s rhetoric has deepened the sense of unease that has gripped much of the Middle East since October 2023, when the war between Israel and Hamas began. Though he came into office having pledged to avoid the costly military entanglements that marked the post-9/11 era, he has been adamant that Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. The White House has recirculated those talking points on social media along with a recent assessment by Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the top commander overseeing U.S. military operations in the region, that said Tehran was closing in being able to do so quickly.

“I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said on Wednesday. “I can tell you this, that Iran has got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”

The prospect of a U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear program has split Trump’s political base.

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Republican hawks say they favor an attack, saying that Israel has diminished Iran’s military capabilities and its network of regional proxy forces, opening a window of opportunity to eliminate a threat. Others in the GOP have argued that Trump campaigned on avoiding war and the last thing the United States needs is to be embroiled in another Middle East conflict.