Semper Stultus

A former U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II pilot arrested in Australia for allegedly helping train Chinese naval aviators in the great American art of aircraft carrier flight operations has been accused by the United States of conspiracy and breaking arms control laws.

Daniel Edmund Duggan, an Australian citizen, was arrested down under in October 2022. Only days before Duggan’s arrest, Britain and Australia issued terse warnings about Chinese attempts to recruit retired Western military pilots.

According to an indictment prepared by U.S. prosecutors in 2017 but unsealed only recently by a District of Columbia federal court, Duggan "provided training to PRC (People's Republic of China) military pilots" at a South Africa-based flight academy on at least three occasions between 2010 and 2012. Duggan was also allegedly involved in the potentially illegal procurement of at least one T-2 Buckeye—a U.S. Navy intermediate jet training aircraft capable of carrier launches and traps.

The indictment sets forth that Duggan—who is currently detained in Australia—was specifically engaged in helping the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) develop its fast-growing carrier aviation branch. U.S. prosecutors allege the training Duggan provided entailed "instruction on the tactics, techniques, and procedures associated with launching aircraft from, and landing aircraft on, a naval aircraft carrier.” What’s more, Duggan allegedly acted with several unidentified co-conspirators, including a Chinese national, a British national, and a South African national.

Neither Duggan nor his co-conspirators—according to the indictment—had applied for a license to provide defense services to foreign nationals. Ergo, the former Marine aviator faces two counts of violating the arms export control act and international arms trafficking regulations, one charge of conspiracy to launder money, and one count of conspiracy.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Duggan moved to Australia, where he ran a business called Top Gun Australia, which promoted itself as the antipode’s “premier adventure flight company.” The business’s web page described Duggan as a "former U.S. Marine Corps officer of over 12-years,” who flew missions in support of Operation Southern Watch from both Kuwait and the USS Boxer—a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned in 1995 and still in active service with the U.S. Navy. "As a highly trained fighter pilot,” the Top Gun Australia website continued, “he [Duggan] flew harrier jump jets off of aircraft carriers tactically around the globe.”

Duggan relocated to China in 2014. Three-years-later, he took work in Qingdao as the managing director of AVBIZ Limited, a self-described “comprehensive aviation consultancy company with a focus on the fast-growing and dynamic Chinese Aviation Industry.” Registered in Hong Kong, AVBIZ Ltd. formally ceased operations in 2020.

The whereabouts of the T-2 Duggan allegedly procured and the extent to which it was used in the crimes of which he’s accused is unknown. A 1967-vintage T-2B model is listed as having been exported to South Africa in May 2011. A subsequent online listing for the aircraft cites extensive upgrades, to include the installation of full EFIS suites, as well as Garmin GPS navigation and communications aids in both cockpits. The identity of the aircraft’s current owner is also unknown.

Whether or not the T-2’s sale and reregistration were conducted legally remains to be determined. The jet’s arrival in South Africa coincides, however, with the timeline of Duggan’s alleged felonious endeavors.

Why, exactly, the training of Chinese naval pilots was undertaken in a 55-year-old T-2 remains unclear; in South Africa, at least, the aircraft would have been unable to perform carrier-representative take-offs and landings. Conversely, the planned acquisition of the Buckeye corresponded with China’s development of a tailhook-equipped jet trainer of its own—the Guizhou JL-9GA. Subject aircraft entered PLAN service in or about 2021.

That the T-2 may have provided Chinese plagiarists useful insight into the design of an effective Naval jet trainer is not inconceivable.

FMI: www.marines.com