Posted on 04/19/2017 12:12:03 AM PDT by Robwin
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Every submarine in the U.S. fleet was designed with the height, reach and strength of men in mind, from the way valves are placed to how display screens are angled.
That's going to change.
With women now serving aboard submarines, defense contractor Electric Boat is designing what will be the first Navy subs built specifically to accommodate female crew members.
The designers are doing the obvious things, such as adding more doors and washrooms to create separate sleeping and bathing areas for men and women and to give them more privacy. But they are also making more subtle modifications that may not have been in everyone's periscope when the Navy admitted women into the Silent Service.
For example, they are lowering some overhead valves and making them easier to turn, and installing steps in front of the triple-high bunk beds and stacked laundry machines.
The first vessel built with some of the new features is expected to be delivered to the Navy in 2021, the future USS New Jersey.
The Navy lifted its ban on women on submarines in 2010, starting with officers. About 80 female officers and roughly 50 enlisted women are now serving on subs, and their numbers are expected to climb into the hundreds over the next few years.
For now, the Navy is retrofitting existing subs with extra doors and designated washrooms to accommodate women. But Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, is at work on a redesign of the Navy's Virginia-class fast-attack subs and is also developing a brand-new class of ballistic-missile submarines, relying on body measurements for both men and women.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Would be nice if Trump said IXNAY.
Seems extra SMRT!
Are they painting them pink?
Wimyninthemilitary, too fdup.
Bad idea
Will the subs cut through the water with grace and poise?
Will they also put a nursery on board?
They should do this, while they’re at it. Change fire control for missiles in each submarine to only require one woman sailor, and make it a simple button.
You mean like in Operation Petticoat?
Yep. ;)
FIRE TAMP 1 !!!!
FIRE TAMP 2 !!!!
I was thinking the same thing. Full-on pregnancy wing and obgyn services.
Young men and women in a closed and confined space like that spells s-e-x.
Bad idea. They better put a lot of salt peter in everything on those subs.
Then again with gays now allowed to serve openly in the Navy now; why should they have all the fun?
Women and seamen don’t mix.
Don't see where he could even if he wanted to, and I doubt it's something he wants to pursue. There's just too many women joining the Navy these days, and fewer men. It's a detailing nightmare.
Operation Petticoat
“Will they also put a nursery on board?”
Possibly. But the abortion services will by far be the ‘procedure of choice’.
Wonderful. Not.
Well, you have heard of the mile high club. They will have to coin a new slogan.
The 40 fathom club. DIVE! DIVE!
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