Just in case. I’m re-upping the Story Thread I’ve been keeping track of involving the PLAAF’s & PLAN’s recruitment of Fighter Pilots from Western Countries to bolster the capabilities and experience in their Air Forces that originally started months ago. Here are the details 🧵:
The origins of how this story developed goes back to a viral video of a Training Crash of a Chinese JL-10 back in April when a Pilot was found next to his instructor:
The next phase of this scandal involves an organization known as the Test Flying School of South Africa. As the name implies they’re a pilot training school & instructors include Fmr Western Pilots. Here’s the announcement of compliance w/ SACAA in Feb: timesaerospace.aero/news/training/…
It’s from this flight school that most of this ongoing scandal will have various links to. As we’ll learn over the next couple months from October-November as it plays out.
It’s October when the First Shoe Drops. @DefenceHQ for the UK announces that former members will of the RAF have been recruited by the Chinese to train pilots of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). bbc.co.uk/news/uk-632935…
The next is the discovery that it wasn’t just members of the British RAF, other Air Force veterans from commonwealth nations are reported to be involved, including Canada. Canadian MoD begins its own investigation:
theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…
Australia is also sent scrambling to investigate how pilots within their own country are/were being recruited by the PRC. Keep an eye on this point because of what happens over the following week.
thetimes.co.uk/article/a40ee6…
There are also calls in other countries to investigate their own agreements/involvement in the training of PLA soldiers by western/western-aligned countries. This thread from New Zealand 🇳🇿 is notable in that regard:
What’s most notable of all the countries so far listed was the fact they were all pilots from their countries’ various Air Forces. What makes France 🇫🇷 notable is not that it’s not just recruitment of Air Force pilots, it’s the active attempts to recruit French Naval Pilots.
What separates French Naval Aviation from other Western Nations? They’re the only other country outside the United States with experience in Carrier Take-Off & Landings w/ Catapults. Every other Carrier operating in the world outside the 🇺🇸 & 🇫🇷 doesn’t use them, but China will.
Meet Type-003 Chinese Carrier Fujian at her launch ceremony back in June of this year. She’s the only other carrier class in the world outside the $13 Billion Gerald R. Ford that uses Electromagnetic Catapults to launch aircraft. The first and not last line of ships for the PLAN.
What does this have to do with the recruitment of Western Pilots? It’s simple. China is on a massive modernization run for its Military, especially with Air Power, and even their own press will admit, they’re having trouble with getting naval pilots.
scmp.com/news/china/mil…
Naval Aviation is not a new concept or science, but there is a process and an art form to it. No modern navy illustrates this better than the United States Navy Post-WWII. The Navy is the Second Largest Air Force on Earth behind the USAF-With a lot of trial & error along the way.
But as @roderick_s_lee pointed out from the SCMP article, it’s not that the Chinese are struggling to find new aviators, they’re just training more of them to fill new demands.
As the Eurasian Times pointed out, China has had setbacks with these demands, more pilots means a higher washout rate, more probability with accidents. They’re still new at this. eurasiantimes.com/with-over-2000…
The biggest bombshell so far of the Western Pilot training scandal came on October 25th, via @Reuters in Australia. When Daniel Duggan, a retired USMC Harrier Pilot turned Flight Instructor, was Arrested under a sealed-indictment for working for the PRC.
reuters.com/world/exclusiv…
Duggan’s work with China since 2017 was further compounded during his first hearing upon discovery that he had worked with/shared an address with a man named Stephen Su. Stephen Su is also known as Su Bin. An agent of the PRC. reuters.com/world/exclusiv…
Su Bin’s work is notorious among the US Defense and Intelligence industry, involving the theft of secrets and data related to major US Aircraft including the C-17 transport, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 JSF/Lightning II and was sentenced by the DOJ in 2015. justice.gov/opa/pr/chinese…
Su Bin and Duggan were also found to be involved with the same Pilot School setup in South Africa where this story originally began.
reuters.com/world/former-u…
Duggan is defending himself against extradition by claiming/stating to have renounced his U.S. Citizenship for his one in Australia. He’s currently being kept as a “high-risk” prisoner pending his trial, as his lawyers in the country have protested. reuters.com/world/asia-pac…
It’s very clear at this point the US Government wants Duggan back for something big, Duggan knows it, and meanwhile US Allies are starting to get the picture that something is very, very wrong here.
It’s obvious now, but since the Sino-Soviet Split, USSR Collapse, & definitely with Russia’s Calamity in Ukraine, the PRC is attempting to model & copy everything it can from the West. Fighter pilots are not unique. As this former Army 🚁 pilot shows:
news.yahoo.com/former-army-he…
The West is starting to take notice and adjust to this problem. Will laws change for how former-airmen are allowed to operate? We’ll see but now multiple nations are having to take action over this.
The DOD’s latest CMPR report shows that China has no intention of slowing down or stopping development and growing experience within its own Air or Naval Forces. Combined the PLAAF/PLAN are the largest air power by number in the Indo-Pacifc.
defense.gov/CMPR/
The Original Start was back in October, with the arrest of Daniel Duggan in Australia, here:
I’d also like to give kuddos to @KirstyLNeedham over at @Reuters for being on top of this story. If you want to keep track on the Daniel Duggan story and trial, she’s definitely worth a follow. 👍🏻
Update: The wife of Daniel Duggan has uploaded a petition to the Australian AG to release her husband from custody.
She blames the China Initiative launched by the DOJ in 2018 to combat Chinese Espionage. The program was ended in February 2022 due to criticism and reorganized.
@caryndolley’s latest piece shows the links between the Test Flying School of South Africa is worth a read and includes more reference material.
I’m adding Su Bin’s Plea Agreement with DOJ from 2016 below 👇🏻
justice.gov/opa/file/83493…
As well as the red flag 🚩in the federal registry of the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry.
public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-17960.pdf…
😬
Oh yeah. No Bueno.
Duggan is alleged to have helped train the Chinese in Aircraft Carrier tactics and landings. Along with testing of Naval Aviation according to DOJ’s 2017 indictment unsealed last Friday.
cnn.com/2022/12/13/aus…
Thanks to some friends I was able to get a hold of the Indictment filed by the DOJ in 2017 and unsealed last Friday. Still reading through it and but one thing stands out to me after the first page:
“Conspirator E” is a former commissioned officer & fighter pilot of the US Navy.
After reading through the indictment by DOJ, it’s striking how long that this process has been going on and to the extent. South Africans lying to the State Dept. to buy T-2 Buckeye Naval Trainers from American Aircraft Dealers back in 2010 and the setup in South Africa.
In short, a cabal of Western Pilots (American, British, South African) have not only been training, but essentially this group is possibly the origin of the Modern PLAN Carrier Air Arm. If you started training in 2010, when China’s first carrier wouldn’t enter service until 2012.
The T-2 Buckeye was the Primary Trainer Aircraft for the US Navy until it was replaced in 2008. Which means within three years of retirement, a group working with the PRC, INCLUDING US NAVAL AVIATORS, purchased one for use at the South African Test Flying Academy.
“TFASA says it has had links to China since 2003, initially in testing aircraft for the Civil Aviation Authority of China and other entities.”
More on links between South African TFASA and the PRC from @AlastairGale of @WSJ👇🏻
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