The United States Justice Department announced Wednesday the arrest of a former Air Force fighter pilot accused of providing unauthorized training to Chinese military personnel.
Authorities say he “conspired with foreign nationals to provide combat aircraft training to pilots in the Chinese Air Force” without obtaining the required license from the US State Department.
FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted the case on X, saying, “Major story… the FBI and our partners have arrested a former US Air Force Pilot who was allegedly training pilots in the Chinese military.”
The accused, Brown, served 24 years in the US Air Force, during which he “commanded sensitive units with responsibility for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions, and served as a fighter pilot instructor and simulator instructor on a variety of fighter and attack aircraft.”
After retiring from the military in 1996, Brown worked as a cargo pilot before later becoming a US defense contractor training pilots on A-10 and advanced F-35 fighter jets.
Investigators say he began negotiating a contract in August 2023 with Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese national previously imprisoned in the US for four years starting in 2016 over another espionage scheme and traveled to China in December 2023 to start his training role.
Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division warned, “The Chinese government continues to exploit the expertise of current and former members of the US armed forces to modernize China’s military capabilities. This arrest serves as a warning that the FBI and our partners will stop at nothing to hold accountable anyone who collaborates with our adversaries to harm our service members and jeopardize our national security.”
