A former French Navy pilot was detained and is being investigated in France for passing on sensitive military information to Chinese operatives. The pilot, Pierre-Henri Chuet, sparked controversy in May 2025 by questioning the performance of the Indian Air Force's (IAF's) Rafale fighter jets during Operation Sindoor. He had praised Chinese-made fighters such as the J-10C and JF-17 as "Rafale killers". Rafales, which are the most advanced jets used by the IAF, are made by France's Dassault Aviation.
Chuet has been charged over suspicions he collected and provided classified information to China, according to prosecutors in Paris, according to French investigative outlets, Le Canard Enchaine (The Chained Duck) and Mediapart.
He has been released after being detained but is now under investigation.
Chuet, a dual French-Canadian national, served in the French Navy’s naval aviation until around 2021. During his career he flew Super Etendard strike fighters and Rafale M multirole fighters from the country's only serving aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle.
According to reports in French media outlets, he is alleged to have made at least two undeclared trips to China in September 2018 and August 2019 while still serving in the French Navy. During those trips, he allegedly organised training sessions for Chinese military pilots, arranged via a South African aviation company, and may have shared sensitive operational and tactical knowledge.
He is now reportedly been placed under a formal investigation after being questioned by the DGSI (France's primary domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism agency) and having his home searched during the week of 20 July 2026.
Chuet has denied the allegations, telling Le Canard Enchaine that he only organised a couple of seminars and that the trips "did not go well". He faces multiple charges, including sharing intelligence with a foreign power, disclosure of national defence secrets, and related offences, and has been placed under judicial supervision.
Allegations that Henri Chuet had passed on sensitive military information to China first surfaced in 2023 and then again in 2025. During those two years, Le Canard Enchaine and Mediapart reported that Chuet made two trips to China in 2018 and 2019 while still serving as a pilot in the French Navy, without informing his commanding officers as required under French military regulations.
The trips were allegedly funded by a flying school based in South Africa, named TFASA (Test Flying Academy of South Africa), and saw Chuet organise training sessions for Chinese military pilots, including instruction on carrier operations.
According to the Meidapart report, the 2018 first seminar covered the technologies used for carrier landings, while the second focused on more extensive aircraft carrier operations, including training for naval aviators and landing signal officers (LSOs), the E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, and recent Western military operations in Syria.
In April 2025, prosecutors in Paris told the newspaper, Le Parisien (The Parisian) that they received a referral from France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces concerning a former serviceman "suspected of sharing intelligence with a foreign power, disclosure of national defence secrets, violation of instructions, dual employment and laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud." The "former serviceman" was later identified by the newspaper as Henri Chuet, and a preliminary investigation followed.
On Monday, July 27, 2026, the French investigative outlet, Intelligence Online, reported that Chuet was placed in custody and questioned by the DGSI (France’s domestic intelligence service) in the week of July 20. His residence was also searched by the DGSI.
He was then presented to an investigating magistrate and formally placed under formal investigation on charges, including disclosure of national defence secrets, sharing intelligence with a foreign power, collection of information relating to the fundamental interests of the nation, and delivery of information to a foreign power. He has since then been released under judicial supervision. The case is now under the direction of an investigating judge.
Chuet is not the first Western pilot to face charges of sharing sensitive information with the Chinese. News agency Reuters reported in February this year that US authorities had arrested and charged a former US Air Force F-35 pilot for allegedly training Chinese military personnel.
And in June 2024, the US, along with Australia, the UK, Canada, and New Zealand, published a bulletin warning that "China's People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to target current and former military personnel from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) nations and other Western countries to help bolster the PLA's capabilities."
Henri Chuet, for his part, has denied these charges. "I simply led two three-day seminars. My 2019 trip did not go very well. I never set foot in China again afterwards," the accused told Le Canard Enchaine in 2025.
Alongside the allegations that he passed sensitive French military knowledge to China, Henri Chuet also built a public profile as a defence commentator. A frequent guest on television programmes in several countries, he also ran a YouTube channel with more than 560,000 subscribers at the time of writing.
During Operation Sindoor, the four-day India-Pakistan mini-war in May 2025 that saw Indian air, missile and drone strikes target Pakistani airbases, radar installations and terrorist infrastructure, Chuet drew criticism for a series of videos analysing the aerial engagements.
In a video published on May 10, 2025, Chuet asserted that a Pakistan Air Force J-10C had successfully shot down an Indian Air Force Rafale using a PL-15 beyond-visual-range missile, despite there being no official confirmation of such a claim.
In subsequent videos, he praised the performance of Pakistan's Chinese-made J-10C and JF-17 fighter jets, and described them and the PL-15 missile as "Rafale killer", arguing that the conflict had demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinese air combat technology.
Notably, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier publicly dismissed Pakistan's claims that its forces had shot down Indian Rafale fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, calling the allegations inaccurate. While India has acknowledged that the IAF lost "some aircraft" during the conflict, it has consistently denied that any of them were Rafales.
That position was further reinforced by an Air Headquarters Request for Proposal (RFP) issued in June this year. The document sought bids for a five-month bridge support package covering all 36 Rafale fighter jets in the Indian Air Force, the same number acquired from France, indicating that the entire fleet remained accounted for.
For all the controversy surrounding his commentary on Operation Sindoor and his praise for Chinese fighter jets, Pierre-Henri Chuet now faces a far more serious challenge. French authorities have formally charged the former naval aviator with serious offences, including maintaining intelligence links with a foreign power and disclosing national defence secrets over allegations that he passed sensitive military knowledge to China.
That said, Chuet has not been found guilty. Under France's judicial system, being placed under formal investigation means investigators believe there is sufficient evidence to pursue the case, but it is not a conviction. The case will now proceed under the supervision of an investigating magistrate, who will determine whether it should ultimately go to trial.
If prosecutors succeed in proving the allegations though, as French satirical investigative outlet Le Canard Enchaine wryly suggested, the former Rafale pilot might really have flown a little too close to China.
