US Navy To Debut First Of Its Kind Submarine Built For A Mixed-Gender Crew

The following report is by Business Insider:

The USS New Jersey “is the first Virginia-class submarine designed and built for a full gender integrated crew,” according to Naval Sea Systems Command.

Delivered last April after eight years of construction, it will enter active service on September 14, following a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey.

A long-standing ban on women serving aboard US submarines was lifted in 2010, and as of 2023 there were 609 women assigned to submarines in operation, per the US Naval Institute.

“The submarine community is a fully gender-integrated warfighting force,” said Vice Admiral Robert Gaucher, commander of Submarine Forces Atlantic, according to Stars and Stripes.

Gaucher added, per the outlet, that all future nuclear-powered attack submarines and all new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines are to be designed “gender-neutral from the keel up.”

For the New Jersey, that meant adjusting many details, from the height of overhead valves to the privacy of washrooms and berths, the outlet reported.

Since admitting women onto submarines, the US Navy has faced the challenge of retrofitting and reorganizing vessels for co-ed use.

Last year, the Navy announced plans to expand the number of submarines taking on co-ed crews from 30 to 40, the Navy Times reported.

Lieutenant Commanders Andrea Howard and Emma McCarthy, who joined the influx of women to the fleet, wrote last year about the adjustments needed — both physical and social — in integrating them on ships designed for all-male crews.

Space is tight, and the distribution of bathrooms and berths doesn’t always match the crew’s needs, they wrote.

“The number of women on board often does not conform to three- or six-man rack configurations,” they said.

Similar issues apply to the washrooms, with some crews dividing up the space and others deciding to use them in all-male and all-female blocks.

“Transit to and from these spaces for showering also warrants an unambiguous, uniform standard for decency,” they said.

But the physical arrangement of a submarine was only part of the issue — the workplace culture also needed to adapt, they said.

“Crew reactions ranged from treating the women the same, to making the experience awkward (knowingly or unwittingly), to showing disinterest in helping or—at worst—actively subverting,” they wrote.

The first influx of female junior officers also drew sometimes awkward curiosity from male crew members, they said.

“A fishbowl effect developed any time one of the first female junior officers did something for the first time,” they wrote.

The USS New Jersey is the 23rd Virginia-class submarine and the third Navy vessel to be named after the state. In 1900, New Jersey was the site of the construction of the first-ever US submarine.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Men are not women, and women are not men. Making them compatible cannot and has not ever worked, especially in the military; which is a place women should not be in the first place, nor will I understand why they would want to in the first place, besides the obvious feminism and benefits, of course.

1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. [8] For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. [9] Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

We’ve discussed many times on The WP how the U.S. Armed Forces continue to weaken rapidly and are dreadfully underprepared for any real conflict or true national defense, and this is another example of that: spending more money on submarines to accommodate women; a position that they should never even be apart of.

Jeremiah 48:14 How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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