Ex-F35 Instructor Trains China’s Aces

F-16 fighter jet on an airbase during sunset

A former American fighter pilot now stands accused of teaching Chinese combat aviators how to fight our own troops, exposing a deeper problem of U.S. military know‑how quietly leaking to a hostile regime.

Story Snapshot

Former Air Force Major Gerald “Runner” Brown is charged with illegally training Chinese military pilots under the Arms Export Control Act.
Justice Department documents say he spent up to two years in China teaching combat tactics to People’s Liberation Army Air Force pilots.
Officials warn that unlicensed “private” training for Chinese forces is part of a wider pattern involving Western ex-pilots.
Another case, former Marine pilot Daniel Duggan, shows this is not an isolated incident and raises questions about enforcement and loyalty.

Ex–Air Force Fighter Pilot Accused of Training Chinese Combat Aviators

Federal prosecutors say 65‑year‑old former United States Air Force Major Gerald Eddie “Runner” Brown was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana, after a career that once included instructing American pilots on advanced fighters such as the F‑35.^[2]^[3] According to a Department of Justice complaint, Brown is charged with “providing and conspiring to provide defense services to Chinese military pilots without authorization” in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, the primary law restricting U.S. defense services to foreign militaries.^[1]^[2]^[3] Officials stress that Americans must have a license from the State Department before providing such training to any foreign armed forces.^[1]^[2]^[4]

Government documents and open reporting say Brown began negotiating a contract in or around August 2023 and then traveled to China in December 2023 to start training pilots from the Chinese Air Force, officially known as the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.^[1]^[2]^[3] Coverage citing the complaint reports that Brown allegedly spent roughly two years in China working directly with Chinese forces before returning to the United States in February 2026, where he was taken into custody shortly afterward.^[3] Prosecutors allege the training counted as controlled “defense services” requiring State Department authorization, which Brown did not have.^[1]^[2]^[4]

Alleged Transfer of American Tactics and Use of Known Chinese Intermediary

Details reported from the complaint paint a picture that alarms many in the national‑security community: Brown is accused of training Chinese military pilots specifically in American systems and combat tactics.^[3] One outlet citing communications among Brown, Chinese contacts, and at least one other co‑conspirator says he repeatedly expressed excitement about training Chinese fighter pilots in combat operations and listed his objective as “instructor fighter pilot.”^[3] The same reporting describes an expectation that Brown could be assigned to what was described as the Chinese equivalent of the Air Force Weapons School, similar in concept to the Navy’s “Top Gun,” implying exposure to elite Chinese aviators.^[3]

Reports also connect Brown’s alleged work to a known Chinese procurement figure, Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese national who previously pleaded guilty in a United States case involving hacking American defense contractors to steal sensitive military and export‑controlled data for Beijing.^[3] According to coverage summarizing the new complaint, Su Bin helped negotiate Brown’s contract to train Chinese pilots, suggesting an organized channel to exploit Western combat experience for the benefit of China’s air forces.^[3] Federal law enforcement officials emphasize that while Brown was not accused of physically exporting hardware, they view his decades of tactical knowledge as a form of export with real battlefield consequences.^[3]^[6]

Pattern of Foreign Recruitment of Western Pilots and a Marine Parallel

United States Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces Africa has publicly warned that the People’s Liberation Army has used private companies to hire former Western fighter pilots to train Chinese Air Force and Navy aviators.^[4] A statement cited in reporting names examples such as the Test Flying Academy of South Africa and other firms used to recruit ex‑military fliers from multiple Western countries for Chinese training programs.^[4] Advocacy groups tracking foreign military aviation also point to flight schools in the United States and Canada that have trained Chinese pilots, raising concerns about how much Western expertise is flowing into Chinese hands through seemingly private channels.

The Brown case is not the only prosecution in this space. The Department of Justice has also charged former Marine pilot Daniel Duggan, now an Australian citizen, with providing and conspiring to provide defense services to Chinese military pilots without authorization under the same Arms Export Control Act framework.^[5] Australian authorities arrested Duggan at the request of the United States over allegations he trained Chinese military pilots more than a decade ago, including carrier takeoff and landing techniques, while being paid significant sums.^[5] Duggan, through public comments reported by Australian media, maintains that he trained Chinese civilian pilots in South Africa, not military aviators, and he denies the allegations while fighting extradition in Australian courts.^[5]

National‑Security Stakes and the Limits of What We Know So Far

National‑security officials describe these prosecutions as critical to protecting American military advantage against a hostile communist regime that is rapidly modernizing its air forces.^[1]^[2]^[6] The Justice Department underscores that when Americans provide combat training to foreign militaries without a State Department license, they potentially enable adversaries to counter U.S. tactics that took decades and billions of taxpayer dollars to develop.^[1]^[2]^[3] At the same time, both the Brown and Duggan matters remain at the charging or extradition stage; there is no public record of trial verdicts, plea agreements, or detailed damage assessments clarifying exactly what tactics were transferred or how much harm was done.^[1]^[3]^[5]

Open sources show no independently released training syllabi, rosters, or declassified intelligence assessments that quantify the impact of the alleged training on Chinese capabilities.^[1]^[3] Much of the public narrative relies on Department of Justice statements, Air Force warnings, and media summaries, with limited access to the underlying classified evidence that likely drove the investigations.^[1]^[3]^[4] That gap means concerned Americans must navigate between two realities: clear evidence that Beijing is aggressively recruiting Western expertise and prosecutorial allegations that have not yet been fully tested in court, even as the strategic competition with China grows more dangerous.^[1]^[2]^[4]^[6]