Former UK Military Pilots Training Foreign Forces Could Face Prosecution

LONDON—Former UK armed forces personnel who train foreign militaries can now be prosecuted after new laws were formally enacted.

The New National Security Act—which became law in July—has modernized the UK’s counter-espionage laws and given new powers to the security services to tackle what the UK Defense Ministry describes as evolving threats to national security.

Last year, the ministry revealed it believed as many as 30 former UK military pilots had been providing training to China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force, having been lured by generous pay and conditions.

Since the disclosure last October, the ministry believes that many more former personnel have been discouraged from seeking similar work with the militaries of nations considered to be competitors.

Personnel who do decide to provide training to countries like China can be prosecuted under the offense of “obtaining or disclosing protected information.” The term "information" is defined as including tactics, techniques and procedures.

“In recent years we’ve seen attempts to harm our people, damage our economy and undermine our democracy and we’ve also seen attempts from countries such as China to solicit national secrets from former Armed Forces personnel,” UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat says.

“This new Act provides our world-class law enforcement and intelligence agencies with new and updated tools to tackle security challenges such as these—and hold those responsible to account,” he added.

Rumors of Chinese recruitment of ex-military pilots from the West first emerged when cellphone video was published in April 2022 showing two pilots who had ejected from a Chinese JL-10 jet trainer—one of the pilots was a Chinese national, the other was European. 

After the UK Defense Ministry’s alert about the issue, it emerged that personnel from other countries had also been attracted to work in China, including some from France, Canada and the U.S.