Former British Military Pilots Are Training China’s Pilots To Fight The West

British intelligence has issued a rare “threat alert” stemming from Chinese recruitment of approximately 30 former U.K. fighter and helicopter pilots to provide adversary training to Chinese military pilots. As dismaying as this news is, the fact that Britain has no legal code explicitly banning its pilots from providing training to China is jolting.

Reports of the recruitment of British pilots emerged Monday. According to The Guardian, headhunters started courting active and former RAF pilots in 2019. The effort is believed to have expanded with the end of COVID restrictions, and those targeted include pilots from other western countries.

Have former U.S. military pilots have been similarly recruited by China? The Pentagon, the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps did not respond to that question by press time but this article will be updated if they do.

The “threat guidance” from British intelligence “will remind British pilots not to disclose any sensitive information to the Chinese military and ask those approached to tell the Ministry of Defence what is going on,” The Guardian reported. Remarkably, it observed that thus far “there is no evidence that any former RAF pilot has broken the Official Secrets Act in providing training to China.”

That revelation shocks retired USAF Lieutenant General David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and a former F-15 Eagle pilot.

“It’s difficult to imagine that this report is accurate,” he said in an emailed statement. “We can’t afford to have our allies’ tactics, techniques and procedures being taught to the Chinese by those who understand them.”

“Perhaps the Chinese can’t emulate them or put them to effective operational use because of inhibiting cultural idiosyncrasies unique to the PLAAF. But I wouldn’t want to bet on it if former RAF pilots with recent Western fighter currency are over there trying to instruct them in our ways. That would border on treason—if not actually equate to it.”

Apparently it does not in the U.K. Reports from Britain today say that government ministers are scrambling to change the country’s law to prevent former RAF pilots from training the Chinese military. The fact that there has been no pre-existing legal restriction will likely be a matter of discussion in British and western government circles for years to come.

Sky News reported that China’s recruitment effort is still underway, with UK MoD officials acknowledging the country is attempting to hire more current and former British military pilots, “luring them in with salaries of £240,000, or over $270,000.”

The lure can be hard to resist, says Heather Penney, a retired USAF F-16 pilot and Mitchell Institute senior resident fellow. She points out that retired American combat pilots often provide contract instruction to foreign nations, typically through a U.S. defense contractor.

“It’s a lucrative business – big money, tax free. Even with the airlines aggressively hiring, this allows some pilots to continue to fly a jet they love in the mission they love.”

Penney adds that American contract-adversary pilots can provide valuable training for U.S. security partners in the use of American-supplied equipment and insight into our operational culture. These enhance friendly nations’ ability to operate with U.S. forces if called on.

“My understanding is that these are all closely monitored by all the standard ITAR (U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations) requirements. And, as U.S. defense contractors, there’s additional incentive to comply, as well as oversight for the U.S. government.”

The U.K. may not have been watching closely. Reporting indicates that China may have worked through an intermediary company to hire the pilots with suggestions that it used the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, which has no affiliation with the South African government, to reach out to the individuals.

Late Tuesday, U.K. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the government wants to change the law to introduce a “two-strike rule” which would result in British pilots being given one warning before they were prosecuted.

Heappey told Sky News, “We’ve approached the people involved and have been clear of them that it’s our expectation they would not continue to be part of that organization.”

The reaction in Britain has so far been one of disgust. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Defence Select Committee and a former soldier, told Express.co.uk, that the story and the threat alert are “shocking.” He continued, “I would advocate that any former RAF personnel that are working with China in this context, to train Chinese pilots to take on western pilots, should be stripped of their British citizenships.”