China searching for new ways to recruit NATO pilots

China is looking for new ways to recruit Western pilots to study tactics used by NATO air forces, Insader reports.

China’s air force is looking for former pilots from NATO militaries to train its fliers and replace rigid doctrine with more flexible Western methods.

Such exercises will give the Chinese Air Force an understanding of the actions of NATO pilots in the air and help them understand how to counter them properly.

As previously reported, the German authorities have asked China not to recruit former Luftwaffe pilots.

Germany called on China to stop recruiting former Luftwaffe pilots to train its own air force, fearing they could reveal NATO secret information.

In addition, cases of China recruiting former military from NATO countries have already surfaced and were discovered in the USA and Britain.

The Ministry of Defense of the UK, according to the BBC, is concerned about luring former British pilots with large sums of money.

Up to 30 former UK military pilots are thought to have gone to train Chinese pilots for a reward package of $270,000.

The UK first became aware of a small number of cases of former military pilots being recruited in 2019.

The Covid-19 pandemic slowed attempts down, when travel to China was almost impossible. However, the attempts have now increased.

China seeks to improve the skills of its pilots, because it does not have its own effective training program for specialists, which would be created on the practical use of air forces in combat.

At the same time, the United States is seeking to extradite Daniel Duggan, a former United States Marine Corps pilot, who is accused of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Duggan is currently an Australian citizen and is serving a sentence in Australia.

According to him, he trained civil aviation pilots and was in no way connected to the country’s military structures.