Russia and China Racing to Clone Captured UFOs to Launch 'Extraterrestrial Arms Race,' Declassified Files Reveal

Russia and China have been drawn into a fresh wave of UFO speculation after newly released US government files were said to suggest that both countries may be trying to reverse-engineer captured UAPs, according to an interview with Jordan Flowers, executive director of the UAP Disclosure Foundation, on 18 June 2026.

The latest release has revived old questions about what the files actually show, what is alleged, and how much of the fevered language around 'alien tech' is journalistic embroidery rather than evidence.

The news came after the Department of War published its third tranche of declassified and historical UAP records on 12 June 2026 as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE.

The department said the collection would remain on WAR.GOV/UFO and that additional files would be released on a rolling basis. That is the factual spine of the story. Everything else sits somewhere between claim, interpretation and the sort of wild speculation that tends to attach itself to anything with the word UFO in it.

Russia And China UAP Claims

There was reason to believe 'the Chinese and the Russians may have retrieved their own objects related to this and may have tried to reverse engineer them.' Flowers also argued that the disclosures point to a broader national security issue, saying the race to understand and reproduce the technology, if that is indeed what it is, carries 'extreme national security implications.' Those are his words, not a verified conclusion in the public record.

Nothing in the public release, proves that either Russia or China has captured any unknown craft. What the files do show is a continuing official willingness in Washington to release older UAP material, while interest in the subject remains stubbornly high.

The UAP Disclosure Foundation is set to hold a summit in Washington on 25 June, where Flowers and others are expected to discuss the military, scientific and political fallout from the latest release. That schedule matters because the debate has moved beyond grainy footage and into the more awkward question of what governments think they know, what they are still hiding, and what they merely suspect.

Harare File Raises Eyebrows

One of the most talked-about records in the tranche is a CIA cable concerning a reported sighting over Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe on 2 July 2008. The object hovered above the airport, displayed rotating lights and was said to emit 'beams' during observation.

The cable, which circulated through US government and military channels during the final months of George W. Bush's presidency, reportedly described the craft as disc-like with a hollow centre and said it rapidly ascended out of visual range after the lights beneath it shifted colour.

The officials debated whether the object was a foreign reconnaissance device or something of extraterrestrial origin. The fact that both possibilities were even written down tells plenty about the mood of the file. It does not, however, settle the matter.

According to the account, the incident led to Zimbabwe being placed on high alert. Again, that is a description of the document's contents, not a confirmation that the event was extraterrestrial, or even that the object was what witnesses believed it was.

Governments file strange reports all the time. Some turn out to be mundane, some never fully resolve, and some linger in the grey zone that keeps the UFO industry alive.

What The Files Actually Mean

For readers trying to separate signal from noise, the important thing is not the breathless phrase 'extraterrestrial arms race.' It is the more prosaic reality that the US government continues to declassify old UAP material while advocates push for broader transparency and lawmakers keep the issue in circulation.

Flowers has framed the disclosures as part of a larger international competition, but the documents cited so far appear to raise more questions than answers. They do not show cloned UFOs, and they do not establish that Russia and China have succeeded in copying any non-human technology.

They do, however, show how quickly a single release can stir old fears, sharpen geopolitical suspicion and send everyone back to the same unresolved question.

What exactly is in these files, and what is simply being read into them, may turn out to matter more than the headline-grabbing language suggests.