UAPgradeUAPgrade Italiano

Claim origin · GN-08

The United States has been engaged for decades in a secret “cold war” with rival powers, in particular Russia and China, to recover and reverse engineer non-human material.

Circular sources

First attestation
Jun 5, 2023 · David Grusch, The Debrief (statements cleared by DOPSR). Says he reported to Congress about a “cold war” unknown to the public, ongoing for decades, with adversaries at a comparable level, to locate UAP crashes and landings and recover the material from them for reverse engineering. First documented attestation in the sources consulted in this research; the article does not name Russia and China, which Grusch cites instead in the NewsNation interview of the same month.
Who picked it up
  1. Jun 5, 2023 · Karl Nell: Confirms as substantially correct the existence of a terrestrial and underground arms race, for eighty years, to reverse engineer technologies of unknown origin. Opinion or hypothesis (source given: No source indicated)
  2. Jun 2023 · David Grusch: In the NewsNation interview with Ross Coulthart he describes a long “cold war” among superpowers and says that Russia and China also reportedly have their own retrieval programs. Hearsay (source given: Unnamed internal sources)
  3. Mar 8, 2024 · anonymous AARO interviewees: Two interviewees say they took part between 2004 and 2007 in a study, which they believe was commissioned by the White House, on the social impact if the United States, Russia or China were to reveal that they have evidence of extraterrestrial beings or craft; one took it for granted that those governments had it. Hearsay (source given: A one-day study, with no known final report; for Kirkpatrick a think-tank exercise wrongly attributed to the White House)
  4. Nov 13, 2024 · Luis Elizondo: Under oath he states that the United States possesses UAP technologies, as do some adversaries, and that he believes a “multidecade secretive arms race” is under way. Opinion or hypothesis (source given: No specific source; defers to a closed session)
  5. Nov 13, 2024 · Matthew Brown: The report speaks of a decade-long competition among great powers to gather and exploit technologies derived from the study of UAP and non-human intelligence. Based on documents (source given: A 1978 NSA report on Soviet research on parapsychology and biological effects of UAP and undescribed intercepts)
  6. Mar 9, 2025 · Jay Stratton: In the documentary “The Age of Disclosure” he maintains that a race to reverse engineer alien technology is under way among governments and compares it to the Manhattan Project. Opinion or hypothesis (source given: Not indicated)
  7. Sep 9, 2025 · George Knapp: Writes that Senator Harry Reid was convinced that the United States, Russia and China had recovered unknown technology and were in a race to reverse engineer it, and that Russian military documents he obtained in the 1990s show Soviet attempts at study and reverse engineering. Hearsay (source given: The late Harry Reid and non-public documents of the Russian Ministry of Defense, handed to the House task force)
  8. Oct 13, 2026 · Jay Stratton: On Fox News he speaks of a secret “cold war” and says he believes that China and Russia are both working on the reverse engineering of non-human craft. Opinion or hypothesis (source given: Not indicated)
Analysis
None of the speakers indicates a verifiable source on materials recovered by Russia or China: Grusch and Nell speak of competition without naming sources, Elizondo presents the arms race as a conviction of his own, Stratton gives no sources and Knapp attributes the conviction to the late Senator Reid. The speakers are connected to one another (edges karl-nell → david-grusch “guarantor,” jay-stratton → luis-elizondo “colleague,” harry-reid → george-knapp “colleague,” matthew-brown → luis-elizondo “cites”). The 2004–2007 study cited by AARO's interviewees was, according to Kirkpatrick, a think-tank exercise in which members of the same small group took part and which took the existence of the hidden program for granted: an element consistent with AARO's circular reading. The only distinct documentary strand is the Russian military documents that Knapp says he obtained in the 1990s, which concern the Soviet study of the phenomenon and are not public. Foreign documents, public intelligence assessments or direct witnesses are lacking; AARO in 2026 writes that no evidence indicates the capture or exploitation of UAP materials by U.S. entities.

Sources

  1. The Debrief, Kean and Blumenthal, “Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin” (June 5, 2023) (press, pro-disclosure)
  2. Higgypop, summary of Grusch's NewsNation interview with Ross Coulthart (June 2023) (press)
  3. AARO, Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with UAP, Volume I (March 8, 2024) (primary source)
  4. Scientific American, Sean Kirkpatrick, “Here's What I Learned as the U.S. Government's UFO Hunter” (January 19, 2024) (analysis, skeptical)
  5. Official transcript of the November 13, 2024 House hearing (GovInfo, CHRG-118hhrg57440) (primary source)
  6. “Immaculate Constellation” report entered into the record on November 13, 2024 (HHRG-118-GO06-20241113-SD003) (primary source, pro-disclosure)
  7. Wikipedia, “The Age of Disclosure” (other)
  8. George Knapp, written testimony for the September 9, 2025 hearing (House Oversight Committee) (primary source, pro-disclosure)
  9. Liberation Times, “Fight over UFO transparency intensifies…” (September 18, 2025) (press, pro-disclosure)
  10. Sentinel News, Jay Stratton interviewed by Fox News (October 13, 2026) (press, pro-disclosure)

On this site

People 6

Claims 3

Official positions 2

Documents 6

Timeline 7

Open in the interactive archive The whole section: Where the claims come from

UAPgrade's entries are compiled with artificial intelligence (three verifiers with opposing roles) and checked against the sources listed above: how we work. Have a document that changes this entry? Bring it to the Investigations Unit.