Former Air Force officer arrested for conspiring with hacker to provide flight training to Chinese military

U.S. prosecutors accused a decorated former U.S. Air Force officer of conspiring with a convicted Chinese hacker on a scheme to provide detailed training to Chinese military pilots. 

Gerald Eddie Brown, 65, was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana on Thursday after spending nearly three years living in China and allegedly providing combat aircraft training to pilots in the Chinese Air Force, known as the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

Court documents say Brown spent more than two decades in the U.S. Air Force before taking jobs as a commercial cargo pilot and other positions at two U.S. Defense contractors. In 2023, he began negotiating a deal to train Chinese military pilots. 

The contract was negotiated through a co-conspirator with Stephen Su Bin — a Chinese national who ran an aviation and aerospace technology business in Canada. Bin was accused of breaching multiple U.S. defense contractors from 2008 to 2014, and pled guilty in 2016 to hacking into a U.S. defense contractor and stealing “sensitive military and export-controlled data” for the Chinese government.

In one instance, Bin broke into servers used by Boeing to store information related to the company’s C-17 military transport aircraft and emailed the documents to officials in China. Bin served four years in prison for the incident and his company was sanctioned. 

According to prosecutors, Brown worked with Bin to hammer out his deal and was open about his desire to train Chinese pilots in combat aircraft operations. Brown eventually traveled to China in December 2023 and met with PRC officials to explain his extensive resume. 

He stayed in China until he flew back to the U.S. this month. 

Prosecutors said Brown violated International Traffic in Arms Regulations and lacked a State Department license to share his expertise with a foreign military. 

Brown spent 24 years in the U.S. Air Force and left the service in 1996 with the rank of Major. While in the Air Force, he led units responsible for nuclear weapons delivery systems, combat missions and more. 

Brown had his first court appearance on Thursday. Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, claimed Brown “betrayed his country by training Chinese pilots to fight against those he swore to protect.”

Rozhavsky added that the Chinese government has sought to exploit the expertise of former members of U.S. armed forces in an effort to modernize its own military. 

“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,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg. 

“When U.S. persons – whether military or civilian – provide training to a foreign military, that activity is illegal unless they have a license from the State Department.”