By chatnewstv.com
WASHINGTON (chatnewstv.com) — The Justice Department filed a forfeiture complaint Thursday to seize two sophisticated mission crew trainers intercepted during transit from South Africa to the Chinese military, marking a major escalation in efforts to block the transfer of NATO-standard tactical expertise to Beijing.
The equipment, described as “mobile classrooms,” was designed to train People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel in anti-submarine warfare and the operation of airborne warning systems. Authorities allege the trainers were produced by the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) using U.S.-origin software and restricted technical data.
“TFASA masquerades as a civilian flight-training academy when in fact it is a significant enabler of the Chinese air and naval forces,” said Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg. He called the academy a “pipeline” for transferring sensitive Western aviation knowledge directly to the PLA.
Federal prosecutors revealed that the project, internally codenamed “Project Elgar,” aimed to train Chinese aviators to locate and track U.S. submarines in the Pacific. The trainers were specifically modeled after the Boeing-made P-8 Poseidon, the primary maritime patrol aircraft used by the United States and its allies.
The interdiction comes at a time of heightened geopolitical friction, as China, Russia, and Iran began joint naval exercises in South African waters on Jan. 10. U.S. officials have grown increasingly wary of Pretoria’s defense ties with America’s primary adversaries.
“The Test Flying Academy of South Africa illegally exported U.S. military flight simulator technology and recruited former NATO pilots for the purpose of training China’s military,” said Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. He warned that such activities “jeopardize U.S. national security and place the lives of American service members at risk.”
TFASA was founded in 2003 with South African government support to facilitate cooperation with China. While the company claims it provides standard flight test services, the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted the firm in 2023 for utilizing Western sources to train Chinese military pilots in ways “contrary to U.S. national security.”
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the FBI led the investigation. Under federal law, the burden of proof remains on the government to demonstrate that the equipment is subject to forfeiture.
