Ex-USAF pilot allegedly briefed Chinese military on F-35, electronic warfare

A retired US Air Force fighter pilot accused of illegally training Chinese military aviators delivered a presentation at a Beijing military conference in or around July or August 2024 on the structure of the US Air Force, the history of electronic warfare, and the F-35 platform, according to a witness account in newly available federal court filings. 

The new details, first highlighted by Task and Purpose, add substance to the case against Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, who was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on February 25, 2026, and charged by criminal complaint with providing and conspiring to provide unauthorized defense services to Chinese military pilots. 

The US Department of Justice alleges that Brown, a former US Air Force major and fighter pilot instructor, provided combat aircraft training to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) without the required authorization under the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations. The DOJ said Brown lacked the necessary license from the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. 

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Court filings describe alleged Beijing briefing 

According to the criminal complaint filed February 24, 2026, Brown served more than 24 years in the US Air Force before leaving active duty in 1996 as a major. His career included combat missions, command of sensitive units associated with nuclear weapons delivery systems, and instructor roles on aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom II, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and A-10 Thunderbolt II. He later worked as a contractor simulator instructor, training US military pilots on the A-10 and F-35 Lightning II. 

The DOJ originally alleged that Brown began arranging a contract in August 2023 to train Chinese military pilots through a co-conspirator who negotiated with Stephen Su Bin, a Chinese national previously convicted in the United States for conspiring to hack major US defense contractors and steal sensitive military and export-controlled data for China. 

The most specific public account so far of what Brown is alleged to have taught comes from an FBI interview with a former pilot in the Royal Moroccan Air Force who had worked alongside him in China. According to the government’s motion to overturn his release order filed on March 24, 2026, the unnamed witness told the FBI that Brown delivered the Beijing conference presentation, and that Brown was aware that working for Su Bin was “a big deal” and that he might not be able to return to the United States afterward. Brown was not authorized to fly the F-35 operationally, but had worked as a Lockheed Martin contract instructor on the F-35 simulator at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona until his termination in November 2023. 

In voluntary FBI interviews on February 25 and 26, 2026, Brown himself acknowledged providing briefings to the PLAAF and holding approximately 15 to 20 meetings with Chinese intelligence services during his more than two years in China, according to the government’s detention motion filed on March 19, 2026. He told the FBI he viewed his primary contact, Su Bin, as a senior Chinese intelligence figure. 

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South Korea trips come under scrutiny 

The detention motion identifies two visits Brown made to South Korea while based in China, with the second forming part of his return route to the United States in February 2026. Brown’s pre-existing connection to South Korea was substantial: from April 2020 to April 2022, per the criminal complaint, he worked as a contract simulator instructor pilot for the Delaware Resource Group, providing A-10 and F-16 simulator training, with his principal posting at Osan Air Base supporting the Pacific Air Forces Ready Aircrew Program. He was terminated by DRG in April 2022 following a command inquiry into sexual harassment allegations. 

His first return trip took place in 2024. Brown admitted to the FBI that following his return to China from that trip, Chinese intelligence officers met with him and installed software on his computer to download “everything,” prosecutors wrote. The motion does not specify what was on the computer.  

Prosecutors also cite WhatsApp messages from October and December 2025 between Brown and a US Air Force officer and pilot stationed in South Korea, in which Brown discussed his retirement plans and tentatively planned a return to Korea in February 2026.  

Federal prosecutors also pointed to Brown’s use of encrypted communications and his apparent awareness that US authorities were monitoring China-linked pilot recruitment networks. According to the criminal complaint, a former Ecuadorian Air Force pilot working in China urged Brown in January 2024 to delete messages between them on Threema and WeChat after being contacted by the FBI. Prosecutors also cited encrypted messages in which Brown discussed continuing the program for several years before retiring in China, Thailand, or Vietnam. 

Bail fight centers on assets, travel risk 

Prosecutors estimate Brown earned approximately $250,000 annually working for Stratos Aviation, Su Bin’s PLAAF training company. As of 2024, he held an account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China containing up to $200,000, plus a smaller balance at Bangkok Bank in Thailand. After his February 3, 2026, return to the United States, Brown drove from Indiana to Charlotte, North Carolina, in a rental car to buy a Mazda Miata convertible for $17,000 in cash.  

When agents searched his home on the morning of his arrest, they recovered a novelty US passport with a footer identifying it as fake, along with imitation US dollar and Chinese yuan notes. The defense, in its opposition filed on March 23, 2026, said that the passport is plainly labeled as fake (a picture in the court filing shows the passport labeled “FAKE<ID<GENERATOR<FOR<ANDROID”) and that the imitation currency is Chinese ceremonial “joss paper”, a burnt offering used during holidays such as Tomb Sweeping Day. 

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ordered Brown to be released on March 23, 2026, on conditions including 24/7 home detention with his older sister as third-party custodian. Although the government renewed its push to keep Brown detained the following day, citing his foreign assets, his stated intent to retire in Asia, and his admitted contacts with Chinese intelligence, Brown was later released on a $200,000 bond and placed under house arrest with GPS and video surveillance at his sister’s home in Minnesota. 

Part of a wider recruitment concern 

Brown’s case follows other US and allied actions involving former Western military aviators accused of helping China develop aviation expertise. 

The DOJ explicitly linked Brown’s prosecution to the case of former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan, who was charged in 2017 with providing and conspiring to provide defense services to Chinese military pilots without authorization. Duggan was arrested in Australia in 2022 and remains in extradition proceedings. 

US authorities have also targeted alleged enabling networks. In January 2026, the DOJ filed a civil forfeiture action against two anti-submarine warfare mission crew trainers that were allegedly being shipped from South Africa to China, alleging they were part of a broader effort to transfer NATO aviation expertise to the Chinese military. The post Ex-USAF pilot allegedly briefed Chinese military on F-35, electronic warfare appeared first on AeroTime.

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