Normally for both government and privately funded research, the patent rights are shared between the university and whoever funded the research. In the case of the government, I would be surprised if they would be inclined to license much less sell their patent interest to a foreign entity.
I’m familiar with a few cases where privately developed technology was actually erased from the public domain by bringing it into the Fed’s classified world. The private patent holder retained patent rights but had no knowledge what the government was doing with it re. just sitting on it doing nothing or licensing it to other companies for classified applications.
I’m also familiar with situations where private companies kept a technology as proprietary knowledge without patenting solely to keep it off the Fed’s radar thus keeping it from disappearing into the classified world.
Bottom line is that the Feds make big bucks as patent holders.
My opinions…