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A retired Air Force major and former F-35 instructor pilot was arrested Wednesday in Indiana on federal charges alleging he traveled to China and spent more than two years training fighter pilots for the People's Liberation Army Air Force, the Justice Department announced.
Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, known by the call sign "Runner," was taken into custody in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and charged by criminal complaint with providing and conspiring to provide unauthorized defense services to Chinese military pilots in violation of the Arms Export Control Act. He was expected to make his initial appearance before a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Indiana on Feb. 26.
The case marks the second time in recent years that federal prosecutors have charged a former U.S. military aviator with illegally transferring combat flight expertise to China's air force, underscoring what officials describe as an intensifying campaign by Beijing to recruit Western military veterans to modernize its armed forces.
Brown served more than 24 years in the Air Force, retiring in 1996 at the rank of major. Over the course of his military career, he commanded units responsible for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions, and served as a fighter pilot instructor and simulator instructor on some of the most prominent aircraft in the American arsenal, including the F-4 Phantom II, F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and A-10 Thunderbolt II.
After leaving active duty, Brown worked as a commercial cargo pilot before taking positions as a contract simulator instructor for two U.S. defense contractors, where he trained American military pilots on the A-10 and, most recently, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's most advanced and expensive combat aircraft program.
FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky said Brown "allegedly betrayed his country by training Chinese pilots to fight against those he swore to protect." He warned that Beijing continues to exploit the expertise of current and former U.S. service members to enhance China's military capabilities.
According to the criminal complaint, Brown began arranging the terms of a contract to train Chinese military pilots in or around August 2023.
Prosecutors allege he used a co-conspirator to negotiate with Su Bin, a Chinese national who pleaded guilty in 2016 in federal court in California to conspiring to hack into the computer networks of major U.S. defense contractors and steal sensitive military data, including information related to the F-35, the F-22, and Boeing's C-17 transport aircraft
. Su Bin was sentenced to 46 months in prison and his company, PRC Lode Technology, was placed on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List in 2014.
Throughout the negotiations, Brown made no secret of his intentions, according to prosecutors. On his application resume, he listed his objective as "Instructor Fighter Pilot." A co-conspirator told Brown he hoped Brown would be assigned to "my base, but otherwise you'll go where is the local equivalent as the Weapon School," a reference to the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, which trains the military's top tactical experts. Brown later told a co-conspirator that upon arriving in China, "Now... I have the chance to fly and instruct fighter pilots again!"
Brown traveled to China in December 2023 to begin his work. On his first day, he answered questions about the U.S. Air Force for three hours, and on his second day, he prepared and delivered a personal briefing to the PLAAF, the complaint states. Brown remained in China until early February 2026, when he traveled back to the United States and was subsequently arrested.
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