The Navy’s first fully gender-integrated submarine joined the fleet with changes to reflect an increase of women sailors serving in positions that were previously off limits. The biggest change? More doors for more privacy.
The Navy’s newest attack submarine, the future USS New Jersey (SSN 796) was commissioned into the fleet last weekend in a ceremony at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Middletown, New Jersey. Modifications to the USS New Jersey’s habitability requirements include changes to the submarine’s berthing area which is where sailors sleep, the washrooms, and the Chief Petty Officer Lounge.
Lt. Victoria Meyer, a submariner who now works on manpower and personnel issues for the Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic, said the biggest difference on the modified Virginia-class submarine is the berthing spaces. Previously, sleeping areas had curtains which were replaced by doors. In the chief’s quarters, there’s a lounge area and a separate space with a door for sleeping racks, whereas the unmodified version had the racks exposed to the wider living space.
The changes “increase privacy” for the crew members, Jamie Koehler, a spokesperson for Naval Sea Systems Command told Task & Purpose in a statement. The modifications are a signal that the Navy is supporting mixed-gender crews, and will help the service with recruitment and retention, she said.
The submarine’s new all-gender accommodations are part of the Navy’s modernization efforts which account for more women on ships. While the designs are new, women have been serving on submarines officially since 2011. More than 700 women are assigned to operational submarines, and serve as officers and sailors on 19 nuclear-powered ballistic-missile and guided-missile crews and 19 nuclear-powered attack boats, according to the Navy.
The new configuration will be standard for all of the Navy’s future Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarines, according to the Navy.
The Virginia class submarine is 377 feet long and 33 feet wide, but Meyer said that life on a sub isn’t all that bad, adding “I think people kind of shrink down submarines in their mind.”
The new addition of doors however, will give sailors more personal space. It’s also important because the lifestyle aboard involves sailors standing eight-hour watches at all hours of the day in three different parts of the ship, which naturally interferes with sleep.
“It’s just trying to maximize privacy across the board too because men and women like privacy. It’s just an attempt to maximize that,” Meyer said, adding that the curtains, now doors, are for light and for noise control “because you’ve got people traversing that way and you’ve got people sleeping there as well.”
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The Navy’s long-term plan is to have all submarine classes integrated with women and more specifically they hope to have 39 mixed-gender submarine crews with officers and 22 crews with enlisted sailors by 2033.
In 1994, Congress was notified of a new Navy policy expanding the number of assignments available to women but at that time, submarine assignments for women were considered “cost prohibitive” so all-male crews continued. Then in 2010, former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates lifted the ban, allowing women to serve on submarines. The Navy began with women serving as officers first and by 2016, the submarine force integrated its first command with enlisted women.
Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank and a retired enlisted and officer submariner, said the Navy realized design changes were necessary once women were allowed on submarine billets.
“Here we are about 10 years in where the Navy is finally getting a new submarine built that has all of that built in from the start,” Clark said. “The submarine is not something where you can easily just start making design changes to the internals of it because it’s pretty tightly packed whereas on the surface ship, you can go through and make these kinds of changes without it being nearly as challenging.”
When women were first introduced to submarines in the early 2010s, Clark said the Navy initially integrated the ballistic missile submarines because they had the most room and had multiple bathrooms.
Changes are coming to the Navy’s new ballistic submarines, too. Previous iterations of the Ohio-class submarines’ “dimensions and the placement of controls and operating equipment were based on average male height,” according to one officer who spoke to communications staff for a Los Alamos National Laboratory article. But the new Columbia-class submarines will also keep women in mind and even have a step stool for shorter sailors to see through the ship’s periscope.
“What’s unique about the modified Virginia classes is that we are now building submarines with integration in mind,” Meyer said. “I was on New Jersey when it was just me and another female officer and now there’s more.”
A changing submarine fleet
Meyer was originally going to become a pilot but when she graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2019, the service had increased the accession rate for women submariners.
“It’s the people that drew me in — the people that really make me proud to wear dolphins,” Meyer said, referring to the insignia worn by submariners.
Meyer went through the nuclear training pipeline and in April 2021 reported to the submarine’s pre-commissioning unit. Now Meyer assists with matters related to women in submarines.
She joined a six-month deployment to Europe on the USS Washington to which had just integrated women officers. She lived with other women serving as officers on the ship.
There’s no specific policy that prohibits mixed-gender berthing but when it does happen, “it’s definitely the exception and not the norm,” Meyer said, adding that submarines are small spaces and women need time on board to qualify for career progression. “You gotta weigh that against the berthing constraints.”
Meyer said in a mixed-berthing scenario, the woman officer has to volunteer. She also noted a minimum dress standard of sleeping in a T-shirt and shorts.
The ships also accommodate crews of women officers and enlisted sailors. On Virginia-class submarines there are four staterooms for officers with three racks in each, which means 12 sleeping quarters, Meyer said. Since submarines usually have more than 12 officers, the junior officers may not get a state room and instead bunk with the enlisted crew.
The future USS New Jersey is the 23rd Virginia-class submarine with “enhanced stealth, sophisticated surveillance capabilities and special warfare enhancements,” according to Naval Sea Systems Command. The USS New Jersey was co-produced by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII-Newport News Shipbuilding.
“I’m very proud to be a submarine but at the end of the day, I never joined to be a first or I didn’t really think about integration,” Meyer said. “I was just there to get qualified, do my job and be the best officer I could.”
Update: 9/19/2024: This article updated after publication with the most recent information from the U.S. Navy on the number of women on submarines and future goals for women on submarines.
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