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Navy's new gender-neutral carriers won't have urinals
[Updated at 6:17 p.m. ET] The U.S. Navy's new class of carriers will be the first to go without urinals, a decision made in part to give the service flexibility in accommodating female sailors, the Navy says.
The change heralded by the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers - starting with the namesake carrier due in late 2015 - is one of a number of new features meant to improve sailors' quality of life and reduce maintenance costs, Capt. Chris Meyer said Wednesday.
Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any restroom - or head, in naval parlance - from male to female, or vice versa, helping the ship adapt to changing crew compositions over time, Meyer said.
The Navy could designate a urinal-fitted area to women, of course, but the urinals would be a waste of space. Making the areas more gender-neutral is a relatively new consideration for the service, with most of its current carriers commissioned before it began deploying women on combat ships in 1994.
But it wasn't the only reason for the move.
Urinal drain pipes clog more than toilets and therefore can be smellier and costlier to maintain, Meyer said.
"There's a lot more at play in the design objectives than (making the toilet areas) gender-neutral. We're saving money in maintenance costs, and we’re improving quality of life," said Meyer, manager of the Future Aircraft Carriers Program for the Naval Sea Systems Command.
Other quality-of-life updates, according to Meyer:
- Sleeping areas, or berthings, generally will be smaller, designed for fewer people per room. On current carriers, some berthings have more than 100 sailors each. On the Ford carriers, the number will be closer to 30 to 50 each.
- Heads will be attached to berthing compartments. Currently, many sailors have to traverse a passageway between a berthing and a head, meaning sailors who’ve just woken up have to dress up more for a trip to the head than they would if it were adjacent.
The new Ford-class features were first reported by the Navy Times.
Some sailors said that they're happy to lose the urinals because they're hard to clean and maintain, the Navy Times reported this week.
The Ford class is the future replacement for the Nimitz class. The Ford carriers are designed to allow more aircraft sorties, but with about 660 fewer crew members, according to the Navy.
The first three Ford carriers are scheduled to debut between 2015 and 2027, at a total projected cost of $37 billion. That cost includes non-recurring engineering expenses and research and development costs for the first carrier, the Navy says.
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This policy was put in place to allow President Obama to relieve himself should he board a ship.
Is that the way Mooselimbs pea?
I'm sure they will not stock any tampons, pads, or pantiliners to remain gender-neutral....or......will they instead make the men wear them too?
My God, our country is getting stupider by each passing Liberal day.
Std's will have a fertile breeding ground!
Will the male sailors be fined for not putting the toilet seat down?
This is so sweet. Hopefully they can keep vases of fresh cut flowers on the toilets at all times.
They will regret that decision. It is a hell of a lot easier to clean up around a urinal than a toilet.
Why do they think the urinal was so standard elsewhere? Must be those nuts from academia.
"Urinal drain pipes clog more than toilets and therefore can be smellier and costlier to maintain"
Next thing will be the use of kitty litter.
Will they be allowed to leave the seat up for the next guy?
Tugboat Annie's to be with much lower A school scores beat me out of the Engineman C school I earned. On that very day I decided it was four and out for me. I made EN2 then castoff. No urinals? No balls. This country and my beloved Navy are going to hell.
As an old Navy man, I feel this is sissy and stupid. Urinals clog? What, with urine? Urinals use way less water, and that should be critical aboard ship. Wasted space? Use them for flower pots if it is all females. Or let them learn to use them.
Welcome aboard the USS Little PEE PEE ! ware some women are still women and some men are still men and some just havent figured it out yet!
This is the only time in my life I can happily say, I am glad my father is not alive to see this. What has happened to our country.
I am ashamed at this politically correct crap we are actually putting up with. The military leadership have let our fighting men and women down. It makes me sick.
Get over it. Your bathrooms at home are gender-neutral.
And they use salt-water in the toilets. No fresh-water wasted.
Yeah, and 50 percent of my household is male and 50 percent is female. Kinda makes sense doesn't it? On the other hand only 15 percent of the Navy is female and a lot fewer than that serve on Aircraft Carriers. So it makes sense that there would be 6 urinals for every toilet. This has nothing to do with ease of bunk assignments and proximity to the heads. Urinals clog more than toilets, yeah right.
America for spacious skies and women who are men.
What will they call the head? A tail.
The abdomen or back.
"The new hi tech toilets will have a non-raising seat with moister sensors and audible alarm built in. All Navy personnel, male or female will be required to sit when using the new toilets"