Up to 30 former UK military pilots are thought to have gone to train members of China’s People's Liberation Army, the BBC article said. According to the BBC and Sky News, they are being recruited through intermediary head-hunters and cited a particular flying academy based in South Africa as being involved.

The UK is issuing an intelligence alert to warn former military pilots against working for the Chinese military. 
 
Attempts to headhunt pilots are ongoing and had been ramping up recently, Western officials said in a briefing, the reports continued.
 
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Defence said the training and the recruiting of pilots does not breach any current UK law but officials in the UK and other countries are trying to deter the activity.
 
“It is a lucrative package that is being offered to people,” said one Western official quoted by the BBC. “Money is a strong motivator.” Some of the packages are thought to be as much as £237,911 ($270,000).
 
The retired British pilots are being used to help understand the way in which Western planes and pilots operate, information which could be vital in the event of any conflict, such as over Taiwan.
 
“They are a very attractive body of people to then pass on that knowledge,” a Western official said. “It’s taking Western pilots of great experience to help develop Chinese military air force tactics and capabilities.”
 
According to defence consultant Peter Felstead, the recruitment of pilots would coincide with other Chinese activities. Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, he said: “For years they’ve been trying – and in some cases succeeding – to buy up Western aerospace companies to mine their know-how. They’re now at the stage where they can build their own designs – and the power plants that go with them – instead of the past practice of copying Russian designs.
 
“So the next stage, once they've got the aircraft, is how to use them, and throwing money at former UK military pilots is one way of doing that; although I'm surprised how many signed up, since clearly taking such a job is not helpful to UK security.”
 
Felstead added: “The ironic thing about this latest story is that the UK armed forces currently have serious problems training their own pilots; it’s basically taking far too long.”
 
The UK first became aware of a small number of cases of former military pilots being recruited in 2019, which were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Covid-19 pandemic slowed attempts down, when travel to China was almost impossible but the attempts have now increased, leading to this alert.
 
“We’ve seen it ramp up significantly,” a Western official said in a briefing to journalists. “It is an ongoing issue.”
 
Current serving personnel are being targeted but none are thought to have accepted, the BBC said.
 
The pilots have experience on fast jets and helicopters, and come from across the military and not just the Royal Air Force. They have flown Typhoons, Jaguars, Harriers and Tornados.
 
F-35 pilots are not thought to be involved, although China is thought to be interested in them. Some of the pilots are in their late 50s and left the military some time ago. Pilots of other allied nations have also been targeted.
 
Felstead said: “The one thing I would say is that these are likely to be older pilots, as opposed to any of the cadre of pilots who fly our fifth-generation F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, and the tactics of air warfare in the F-35 are completely different to those of fourth-generation fighters. So the Chinese would only be learning how to fight with previous-generation aircraft.”
 
Sky News reported that a Western official named a company recruiting the pilots as the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, though stressed it had no connection with the South African government.

Sky News has contacted the firm to request a response to the allegation.

The BBC said there was no evidence that any pilots have broken the Official Secrets Act or that they have committed any crime. The aim of the alert is to try and deter activity and inform current staff and industry partners and also remind personnel of their obligations to protect sensitive information.
 
"We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People’s Liberation Army personnel in the People’s Republic of China,” the BBC quoted an MoD spokesperson as saying.
 
“All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges – including this one.”
 
Recruiter’s Vanessa Townsend contributed to this piece.
 
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