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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 ...
I guess this will keep the folks in New London busy for a while.
As regulation creep sets and teams up with the new military PC policies, men on subs and even ships will become an anachronism ...
What's wrong with that ratio? I've always said that the push to get women into combat was more about the push for careers for female officers. Female sailors being evacuated from a submarine deployment for pregnancy is just collateral damage and not to be spoken of.
“what do you think this is, some kind of encounter group”
Lines by Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry
Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Spain are four countries that already allow women to serve on submarines, and I think their submarines are more cramped than ours are.
>>Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Spain are four countries that already allow women to serve on submarines, and I think their submarines are more cramped than ours are.
True. And those four countries are well known for having the submarine forces that destroyed the Japanese Navy and choked their nation and then held the USSR at bay for 40 years.
I served on a US submarine that performed a nearly-impossible mission, took on 20,000 pounds of seawater, had damages in every compartment that prevent us from diving again, and we fixed it in 12 hours enough to dive the boat and come home. This is what the American Submariner does. My surface friends have a million stories (and my own experience on the tender confirms it) that when the bad sh!t starts happening, the female sailors get “girly”.
Privacy? I guess we aren't going with Target rules.
This is f-ing ridiculous.
Loved that movie. As a 10 year old my parents took me to see it.
Right, you make that up in a drunken stupor?
I ain’t sayin’ nuffin’
America, setting standards to the lowest common denominator for the last 60+ years.
You’re a f-ing liberal. When will you get the zot?
Redefining “hot racking.”
Anything long and hard and full of seamen is a chick magnet.
.....
I am Groot? I am Groot!
But the fact remains... it will be at least 20 years before T & E and full scale production. JIT to replace an aging fleet.
If I take better care of myself, I might even see it happen.
Military contractors are salivating over the money to be made! THAT... you can be sure of.
Detailing’s not the only nightmare and it’s not a new one.
When I joined in 1966, I was told that the sea duty rotation for missile fire controlmen was 4 and 2 (4 years sea duty, 2 years shore duty). By 1972, with all the new females in the Navy, my rotation had been changed to 6 and 2. By the time I got out in 1975, there was talk of a further change coming to 8 and 2.
“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.”
So are they saying a woman CAN’T do everything a man can do without assistance?? The political left has a name for that..sexists!
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