Hey so I had this same problem! Charon117 on r/Xenonauts pointed me to the solution. You can change the requirement for any research to alien alloy, then sell one to trigger it.
Here is how to fix this specifically: find the file researches.xml in Xenonauts\assests\mods\Xenonauts X-pansion Pack\ Open with notepad++
Line 545 Change "Researches.PrepareOperationEndgame" to "Items.Alienalloys"
Then start the game and sell an alloy.