Is the U.S.A. keeping up in the big weapons race for the assurance of mutual destruction

 So far as I know the U.S.A. has been developing rail-guns since 1990. The navy has some prototypes that are advanced.

The concept of big weapons does provide some amusing images to consider though. Imagine a vast rail gun of a thousand miles in length set against Chinese and Russian rail guns of a similar size and placed a few hundred yards apart pointing at one another- a speed-of-light blast when they went off with the logic of kings.

Hypersonic missiles? Who knows, the world may be saturated with self-driving drones able to deliver all manner of hurt one of these days, unfortunately. Getting to the point of empowerment fast is obviously prestigious- like winning an auto race where one can destroy the opponents- lasers are fairly quick too and can be repurposed as flashlights for energy efficiency.