ORAC - I thought they'd contracted CVN-81 "Doris Miller" earlier this year?
With a mid life RCOH costing around $ 5 bn and taking at least 40 months extending the life of a Nimitz beyond 50 years is probably not worthwhile - but they're going to have to up the tempo on the "Fords" to get back to 11 ships IMHO
The carriers are very definitely a "nice to have" (if you can afford them) - but if they aren't going to play such a front-line role against China then maybe a reduction over time isn't the end of the world.