A Chinese national who returned to photograph Whiteman Air Force Base, home to the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, after being warned to stop has been sentenced to six months in federal custody, in a case that Air Force officials say reflects a broader shift in how the service is policing activity around its most sensitive installations. Whiteman is located in west-central Missouri, roughly 65 miles southeast of Kansas City, and is the only base in the country that hosts the B-2.
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U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Hailey Farrell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Qilin Wu, 35, pleaded guilty in federal court to unlawfully photographing a vital military installation and military equipment without authorization, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). He entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill A. Morris, the release states. He was sentenced last month and remanded to the U.S. Marshals Service before being processed on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, according to an account published by Air Force officials. He is expected to be deported to China.
The case was built not on a general trespassing or espionage statute, but on a decades-old law rarely invoked in recent years: Section 795 of Title 18, paired with Executive Order 10104. Together, they prohibit unauthorized photographs, sketches, maps and other visual depictions of designated military installations, aircraft, weapons and equipment, according to the Air Force account of the case. Officials with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), the service’s law enforcement and counterintelligence branch, said the statute gives them a direct legal tool to act against unauthorized photography of protected military property, rather than waiting for evidence of a larger intelligence-gathering operation.
How the case developed
The encounter began on Dec. 2, 2025, when members of the 509th Security Forces Squadron responded to a report of a suspicious minivan near Whiteman’s perimeter, according to the Air Force news release. Wu, who was driving a vehicle with Massachusetts license plates, told patrolmen he had come to observe the base’s B-2 Spirit aircraft. The patrolmen informed him that photographing or recording video of the installation was not permitted, according to the Department of Justice account of the incident.
The following day, AFOSI was notified that the same minivan had been spotted again at a perimeter fence of the base, the DOJ release states. Agents responded and made contact with Wu a second time. He admitted to taking video of the B-2 Spirit and numerous photographs of Whiteman’s perimeter fencing, a gate and military equipment. Investigators reviewed his phone and documented 18 images and videos he acknowledged having taken of the installation and its equipment, according to the release.
Wu also admitted to photographing another U.S. Air Force base and its aircraft. The Air Force account adds that he later acknowledged photographing installations in Florida and Virginia as well.
Court documents cited in the DOJ release show Wu had entered the United States illegally near Nogales, Arizona, in June 2023 and was arrested at the time by immigration authorities. Because of a lack of detention space, he was released on his own recognizance to await removal proceedings that had originally been scheduled for February 2027. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) re-arrested him on Dec. 3, 2025, the same day AFOSI agents made contact with him at Whiteman.
A change in posture, not just a single prosecution
For Air Force investigators, the case is being framed as more than an isolated prosecution. Col. David Bethel, commander of AFOSI Region 8, said the significance lies in what the case represents about the current security environment rather than the specific facts of one incident.
“For our Special Agents, this isn’t about a single case,” Bethel said, according to the Air Force news release. “It’s about recognizing that the operating environment has changed.”
Bethel described that change as a shift away from clear-cut threats overseas toward more ambiguous activity around domestic military installations, the release states. Investigators said what elevated Wu’s case was not the act of photography alone but the pattern behind it: his return to the base after being explicitly warned, and his apparent focus on perimeter fencing and infrastructure in addition to the aircraft itself.
“When someone gathers information around a sensitive military installation, AFOSI has the tools to hold them accountable,” Bethel said.
The Air Force release notes that some AFOSI personnel and mission partners involved in the case were not identified by name, citing operational security and ongoing mission readiness.
Why it matters for the B-2 fleet
Whiteman is the only Air Force base that hosts the B-2 Spirit, giving the installation a level of sensitivity that extends beyond a typical flightline. Officials said the case underscores the importance of coordination between installation security forces and federal investigators when suspicious activity is reported near sensitive facilities, according to the Air Force account.
AFOSI officials said they intend to keep identifying, assessing and investigating suspected unauthorized photography around protected installations and equipment, evaluating each incident on its own facts, the release states. Bethel characterized the outcome of the Wu investigation, led by AFOSI Detachment 811, as a matter of deterrence.
“Det. 811’s work delivered strategic deterrence,” he said. “This case reflects AFOSI’s professionalism, integration and operational discipline required to defend our installations in an increasingly complex threat environment.”
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