WASHINGTON: The US Navy has decided to allow women to serve on submarines, Pentagon officials said, ending one of the last all-male bastions in the American military.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the recommendation and sent letters to Congress on Monday informing lawmakers of the plan, officials said.
The move came as the US Army’s chief of staff said it was time to revisit rules barring women from ground combat roles.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, had briefed Gates on changing the rules for subs and “he’s endorsed it and sent it on to Congress,” press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
Lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the move before it goes into effect, officials said.
American women can already serve on the Navy’s fleet of warships anfly fighter aircraft, but nuclear-powered subs have remained off limits.
US naval officers previously cited the extremely tight quarters of a submarine as the main reason for the prohibition, but those who favor lifting the ban say subs could be outfitted with separate berths and bathrooms.
The decision calls for “a phased approach to assigning women on submarines,” said a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One option under consideration would to first allow female officers to serve on submarines, the official told AFP.
That approach would involve less sweeping change as officers already have separate quarters from enlisted service members, the official said.
The first group of female officers selected for the duty would have to attend special training for submarines and for nuclear-powered vessels that takes more than a year, the official added.
Top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen first called for the change in written testimony to Congress last year, saying he wanted to “continue to broaden opportunities for women” in the armed forces.
Mullen endorsed the decision, said his spokesman John Kirby.
When Mullen served as chief of naval operations, he ordered a review of the issue but it was not completed before he took his current post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The issue was hotly debated during Bill Clinton’s presidency, when the navy secretary at the time urged a review of the ban but met with strong opposition from senior naval officers.
Women, who comprise about 15 percent of the Navy’s officers and sailors, are also banned from serving in Navy SEAL special forces units.
US military policy prohibits women from serving in the infantry, armor units, special forces and other ground combat roles.
But wars against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan — in which front lines are blurred — have thrust women into combat missions and prompted calls to revise the policy.
Asked about banning women from combat, General George Casey, the US Army’s chief of staff, told senators on Tuesday that it was time to review the policy.
“I believe it’s time we take a look at what women are actually doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and to look at our policy,” Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A women’s rights group welcomed the decision to permit women on submarines as “long overdue” and called for opening all military units to women.
“Women have proven their value and valor under fire in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is past time to recognize and reward their contributions by removing all barriers to their military service,” Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement.
