News Analysis With rising global instability, caused primarily by the belligerence of the new China-Russia axis, these and other countries keep surprising America with their quest for new nuclear weapons and delivery systems, including the hypersonic variety. The chief of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, believes that China’s “breathtaking expansion” of its nuclear arsenal leads the United States in hypersonics and already escalates the risk for America, according to his April 5 congressional testimony. In July, China launched its first test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, which was launched from an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). According to Richard, the test was a “technological achievement with serious implications for strategic stability.” The hypersonic reentry vehicle flew 25,000 miles in one hour and 40 minutes—“the greatest distance and longest flight time of any land attack weapon system of any nation to date,” he wrote in his testimony, which was delivered to the …