Justice Department blocks China from getting U.S.-origin flight simulator technology

Federal authorities blocked two South African containers with flight simulators destined for the Chinese military, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The simulators could have bolstered China’s attack capabilities against U.S. aircraft used for anti-submarine warfare and airborne warning and control.

The South African “mission crew trainers” contained American software and U.S. defense technical data that has been banned from transfer to China, the department said in a statement.

The action was taken against the equipment built by the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a company closely linked to China and sanctioned in the past by the U.S. government for recruiting western pilots to train People’s Liberation Army airmen.

Announcement of the seizure comes as the militaries of China, Russia, and Iran began a week of joint naval exercises in South African waters last week, highlighting the South African government’s increasing alignment with U.S. adversaries.

The containers with the mobile training equipment arrived in Singapore in September 2024 en route to China but were seized by U.S. authorities before they could be transferred.

The equipment arrived in the U.S. on Jan. 7.

The mobile trainers were shown in a photo inside one of the containers as a series of about 12 terminals that are flight simulators.

The mobile classrooms are “intended to assist the PLA to train personnel on the use of airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, focused mostly on the capabilities of the U.S. ASW maritime patrol aircraft (’MPA’) P-8 Poseidon, manufactured by Boeing,” the complaint states.

The Test Flying Academy specializes in military flight testing and training in South Africa and China. Its website states that it has trained PLA pilots on fixed-wing and rotary aircraft.

The company illegally purchased U.S.-origin flight simulator software that was subject to U.S. export restrictions and incorporated American defense technical data on the P-8, making the training modules illegal to sell to China.

The P-8 is the Navy’s premier anti-submarine warfare jet built inside a militarized Boeing 737. The aircraft can conduct reconnaissance and is armed with torpedoes for attack.

P-8 jets would play a major role in any conflict with China over Taiwan in hunting both Chinese submarines and warships.

The complaint said the Test Flight Academy is known to have targeted for recruitment both current and former military personnel from NATO nations and other Western countries to train PLA pilots.

Beginning in 2019, Test Flight Academy began production of the mobile trainers for the PLA under the code name Project Elgar, the complaint said.

The classrooms are built inside shipping containers to train the PLA.

The purpose of the mobile training modules is to provide anti-submarine warfare training to PLA air crews and “to improve the PLA’s own capabilities and to better counter the U.S. military,” the complaint said.

“TFASA masquerades as a civilian flight-training academy when in fact it is a significant enabler of the Chinese air and naval forces and a pipeline for transferring NATO aviation expertise, operational knowledge, and restricted technology directly to the People’s Liberation Army,” said John A. Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security.

Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the equipment seizure highlights “the ongoing threat that China and its enablers pose to the national security of the United States through the unlawful procurement of U.S. military technology.”

The training is “jeopardizing U.S. national security and placing the lives of American service members at risk,” said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant FBI director for counterintelligence.

The Justice Department said the successful effort to prevent the equipment from reaching the PLA is part of a coordinated effort to prevent China’s military from “further threatening U.S. national security.