A Chinese student from Minnesota was sentenced to 6 months in prison for using a drone to secretly photograph a secret shipbuilding vessel in Victoria._1

A Chinese graduate student, Fengyun Shi, 26, has been sentenced to six months in prison after being charged with operating a drone near the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia, where he captured images of U.S. Navy vessels still in design and containing classified systems. This ruling emerged from a court decision on October 15.

Shi’s drone got stuck in a tree near a residential area while flying outside the shipyard’s gates. The SD card retrieved from the drone revealed footage of active Navy ships and those scheduled for future use by the Navy.

FBI agent Brian Dugan, who was involved in investigating the case, remarked, “Our adversaries are eager to learn what we are building. Our job is to stay ahead of them.”

Federal authorities charged Shi under the Espionage Act, which prohibits photographing military facilities that are considered confidential. On July 8, he pleaded guilty to two of the six charges: filming military facilities and using an unregistered drone in a defense airspace. The Department of Justice dropped the remaining four charges.

The two charges he admitted to resulted in a six-month sentence, which will be served concurrently.

Huntington Ingalls Industries, the company that operates the shipyard, expressed satisfaction with the ruling and thanked law enforcement for their thorough investigation in safeguarding “vital national security installations.”

The company issued a statement saying, “We appreciate the court’s careful sentencing in this matter of national security, and we are pleased Mr. Shi has been sentenced to six months in federal prison. We believe that drones like his harm our ability to protect the airspace above the shipyard and jeopardize our work for the nation.”

According to prosecutors, Shi used his drone to capture images of Navy ships on January 6, when he had traveled to Virginia and rented a car. Despite inclement weather, he flew the drone in the area, leading to it becoming stuck in a tree by a residential home. Testimonies submitted by the FBI indicated that a local resident called authorities after capturing a photo of Shi, along with his identification and driver’s license.