By Brad Lendon, CNN
(CNN) — A former US Air Force fighter pilot with more than two decades of experience with nuclear delivery systems and aircraft, including advanced F-35 stealth jets, has been arrested and charged with conspiring to help the Chinese military.
Gerald Eddie Brown Jr., 65, was arrested in Jeffersonville, Indiana, on Wednesday and charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act by providing training to pilots in China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
“Providing US military training to our adversaries represents a significant threat to national security,” Lee Russ, executive director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations Office of Special Project, said in the statement.
Before his retirement at the rank of major in 1996, Brown served 24 years in the US Air Force.
“During his military career, Brown commanded sensitive units with responsibility for nuclear weapons delivery systems, led combat missions, and served as a fighter pilot instructor and simulator instructor on a variety of fighter and attack aircraft,” the statement said.
He also flew a range of jets, from the Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom to more modern F-15s and F-16s, according to the statement.
After retirement, Brown flew commercial cargo aircraft before joining two US defense contractors to work as an instructor in flight simulators training US pilots to fly the US F-35 stealth fighter and A-10 attack jet, the statement said.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 is one of the US’s most-advanced aircraft. About 600 of the fifth-generation jets were in service as of the beginning of the year across the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, with more than 1,600 on order, according to FlightGlobal’s World Air Forces 2026.
Nineteen allied and partner nations are also part of the F-35 program, according to Lockheed Martin.
It is expected to be a workhorse in the US and allied fleets for decades to come.
Brown allegedly spent more than two years in China training PLA pilots, traveling there in December 2023 and staying until earlier this month, the US Attorney’s statement said.
“Brown answered questions for three hours about the U.S. Air Force on his first day in the PRC and then, on his second day, prepared and presented a brief about himself for the PLAAF,” the statement said. The rest of the time he trained Chinese pilots, it said.
“Brown’s alleged betrayal exposed sensitive military tactics, threatening the security of our nation, our armed forces, and our allies,” said FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle.
Aviation analyst Peter Layton of the Griffith Asia Institute, a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told CNN that China could have learned a range of things from Brown.
“If I was China, I would also be most interested in ‘nuclear weapons delivery systems’ and the tactics planned to deliver nuclear weapons,” Layton said.
China could have also tried to learn what tactics F-35 pilots use to avoid detection in both offensive strike and air defense roles.
And Layton said US allies and partners are likely to be asking hard questions of the Pentagon.
“If I was an allied nation flying the F-35 I would be very strongly requesting what the US finds has been passed onto the Chinese. And what changes to tactics and procedures the US now suggests should be made,” Layton said.
But Layton said it’s possible as a simulator instructor, Brown may have just been training US pilots in basic flying, such as take-offs, landings and flying on instruments.
“So possibly no tactics,” he said.
Carl Schuster, former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said even gaining knowledge of those basic techniques could be