What was claimed
A clip shows a US B-2 Spirit stealth bomber plane flying past a US ship in the Persian Gulf.
Our verdict
This video isn’t real and was digitally created, although these planes have been deployed in the recent US air campaign against Iran.
A video is circulating on social media with claims it shows a US warplane in the Persian Gulf, but it was actually created digitally.
The clip was shared on Facebook with the caption: “B-2 Spirit stealth bomber flies above a US carrier in the Persian Gulf”. Other posts including the video suggest the plane was sent there to “raise troop morale”.
But the clip circulating on social media is not genuine footage—it was first shared by a Facebook user who also published the clips on Instagram and YouTube, adding a note in the caption saying: “This video is created digitally”. The creator says they make “Mixed reality digital aviation videos”.
Higher quality versions show obvious flaws indicating it isn’t real, like low quality textures and people behaving unnaturally. We’ve written about how to spot similarly misleading videos in our guides.
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The B-2 Spirit is a US aircraft capable of dropping both conventional and nuclear weapons. These warplanes have been used in the ongoing US air campaign against Iran, named Operation Epic Fury. Some B-2s were reportedly expected to land at British military bases, including Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
We’ve seen lots of viral misinformation spreading in recent weeks about the conflict in the Middle East, which you can read more about here.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this video isn’t real and was digitally created.
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