Navy Secretary Phelan orders Ford-class carrier cost and capability review; FY27 docs omit Ford by name

Analysis
The omission of Ford by name from FY27 shipbuilding accounts, corroborated across Washington Post and Military.com, is the operational tell. Phelan's review is very likely the precursor to a formal delay or partial cancellation of CVN-81 and CVN-82, with a decision probable within the coming 30-60 days. The pattern tracks the 2019 CVN-79 tech-insertion reduction but carried further by Trump's sustained hostility toward EMALS. Partial cancellation would free several billion dollars for drone-carrier and Columbia-class SSBN priorities, but very likely opens a late-2030s carrier-deficit window should Nimitz-class decommissioning proceed on schedule. The Navy's counter-statement praising Ford as battle-proven signals uniformed pushback that will constrain, not prevent, Phelan's authority to restructure. The review may instead be political theater designed to extract congressional protection for the program, in which case CVN-81 survives with EMALS and AAG re-baselined rather than removed.