Former U.S. Air Force Major Arrested for Training Chinese Military Pilots

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that a former U.S. Air Force major and longtime fighter pilot has been arrested on charges that he trained Chinese military pilots without authorization.

Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, was taken into custody in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and is expected to appear in federal court on Thursday. Prosecutors allege that beginning around August 2023, Brown worked to arrange combat aircraft training for members of China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force and traveled to China in December 2023 to carry it out.

Federal officials were blunt.

“The United States Air Force trained Major Brown to be an elite fighter pilot and entrusted him with the defense of our Nation. He now stands charged with training Chinese military pilots.”

Brown served more than 24 years in the Air Force. He commanded units tied to nuclear weapons delivery systems and flew and instructed on aircraft, including the F-4, F-15, F-16, A-10, and later the F-35 Lightning II. That is not entry-level aviation. According to the criminal complaint, that is the experience prosecutors say went to China.

Federal export-control law requires Americans to obtain State Department approval before providing military training or defense services to a foreign military. The DOJ says Brown did not have that approval.

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Investigators allege Brown was clear in communications that he intended to train Chinese fighter pilots. After arriving in China, he allegedly spent hours answering questions about the U.S. Air Force and later presented a briefing about himself to members of the PLAAF. He remained in China until returning to the United States earlier this month.

The FBI said this fits a larger pattern.

“The Chinese government continues to exploit the expertise of current and former members of the U.S. 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.”

U.S. officials have warned for years that Beijing has targeted Western military personnel in an effort to accelerate its own capabilities. This case follows other prosecutions involving former U.S. aviators accused of assisting China. That’s why this isn’t just another arrest.

Fighter pilot training is not simply stick-and-rudder skills. It involves tactics, procedures, and institutional knowledge developed over decades. If proven, the government will argue that expertise was handed to a strategic competitor at a time when tensions with China are very real.

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