From B-2 Architect To Convicted Spy: This Is How Indian-Origin Engineer's Treason Aided America's Rival Stealth Program

As China unveiled a new B-2-like stealth drone, the spotlight returned to Noshir Gowadia, the Indian-origin engineer who designed the B-2 bomber's stealth system and was later imprisoned for selling its secrets to China, significantly advancing Beijing's military aviation.

Cutting-edge B-2 Spirit stealth bombers (Photo: Social media)

As the United States recently sent its cutting-edge B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to strike a strategic Iranian nuclear facility, fresh satellite images show a disturbing development in China. On May 14, 2025, a massive, B-2-sized stealth UAV, with a virtually identical 52-meter wingspan, was detected at a classified airbase close to Malan in Xinjiang, prompting fears of pilfered designs.

This suspicion reignites the infamous spy case of Noshir Gowadia, an India-born engineer who played a critical role in developing the B-2 bomber's stealth propulsion system at Northrop (now Northrop Grumman). With high-level security clearance, Gowadia possessed some of America's most profound defense secrets.

But once he quit Northrop in 1986 and began consulting on his own, Gowadia's fortunes began to go awry. In 2005, he was arrested for peddling highly sensitive US military information, including stealth technology, to China. FBI investigations found that he had made several trips to China between 2003 and 2004, supposedly receiving $110,000 in exchange for his services.

Gowadia was found guilty on 14 counts of violating US espionage laws in 2010 and sentenced to 32 years in prison. He is serving his sentence in a top-security US prison, namely the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (MCFP) Springfield in Missouri, where he was moved in 2025.

While Ashton Gowadia has always insisted on his father's innocence and claimed an unfair trial, espionage specialists widely hold that the pilfered designs gave China a huge advantage in its stealth flight programs. The unveiling of China's new stealth drone at testing has raised fears that Beijing will soon have a stealth bomber equal to the B-2, and this can radically change the world balance of air power.