[paleotrope]

Why does the public need to know now if that is the case?

I think it's likely the news articles are making it sound more definitive than the Navy was thinking, or maybe the person leaking it to the press was trying to make themselves seem more important or make the Navy seem more omniscient.

It does sound like the Navy reviewed their data they had already collected and discovered the implosion and informed people on site that they likely had a termination event.