Chinese National Sentenced to Six Months for Illicit B-2 Bomber Photos at Whiteman

Air Force investigators arrested Qilin Wu, a 35-year-old Chinese national, after he ignored a warning and photographed B-2 Spirit bombers at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The 509th Security Forces Squadron first stopped his white minivan on December 2, 2025, and Wu admitted to taking images of the base and other facilities. Prosecutors invoked US Code Title 18, Section 795, which prohibits unauthorized pictures of installations designated as vital by President Harry Truman’s 1950 executive order.

Wu was convicted of espionage, sentenced to six months in federal prison, and will be deported. Colonel David Bethel of AFOSI highlighted the case as evidence of a changing intelligence-collection landscape, while senior investigators noted the repeat behavior as a key factor. The incident illustrates that, despite advanced satellite and drone capabilities, human-sourced imagery remains valuable to foreign intelligence services.