A former engineer at a Southern California company was sentenced Monday to nearly four years behind bars for stealing technology developed for use by the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and to allow American fighter planes to detect and evade heat-seeking missiles.

Chenguang Gong, 59, of San Jose, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered him to pay $77,408 in restitution and fined him $100,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Gong pleaded guilty in July in Los Angeles federal court to one count of theft of trade secrets.

Gong — a dual citizen of the United States and China — transferred more than 3,600 files from a Los Angeles-area research and development co

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