Confronted with ‘eye-opening’ costs, SecNav vows to root out waste

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Two weeks into the Navy’s top job, John Phelan is wrestling with eye-popping program costs and “unacceptable” shipbuilding delays. “Every missed milestone in shipbuilding and maintenance is a risk to our national security. The need to rebuild and modernize our fleet is now more urgent than ever and has become, in my mind, a national emergency,” said Navy Secretary John Phelan during a keynote speech at the Sea-Air-Space conference on