Local submarines chosen for first female crew members

Two Navy submarines built in part in Rhode Island and based in Groton, Conn., have been chosen as the first U.S. attack submarines that will have women in their crews, the Navy announced Tuesday.

 

The Virginia and the Minnesota, members of the Virginia class of nuclear submarines, will each have three female officers beginning no later than January 2015, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced in a statement.

 

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, a member of the Armed Services Committee, applauded the announcement. "I think it's a strong, positive step forward," he said in an interview. "It will increase the talent available to operate" Virginia-class submarines.

 

The three female officers on each of the submarines will share a three-person stateroom in a part of the boat reserved for officers, according to Lt. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the submarines based at Naval Submarine Base New London, in Groton.

 

They will share bathroom and shower facilities with male officers, but the facilities will be scheduled so that they are for men part of the time and women at other times, Hawkins said. That same arrangement is used aboard Ohio-class ballistic- and guided-missile submarines, larger boats that already have women on their crews.

 

"No modification is necessary for the Virginia-class submarines that were selected," Hawkins said.

Each of the two subs will have one female supply officer and two female officers who are nuclear-trained and will work in a variety of departments onboard, such as engineering, navigation and weapons, Hawkins said.

 

Female supply officers already served aboard Navy surface vessels, so they will be selected as more seasoned officers to mentor the other two, more junior officers, Hawkins said. He said that, typically, the junior officers will be ensigns when assigned to the submarine, while the supply officer will be a lieutenant junior grade or a lieutenant.

 

It will take until near the end of next year for the officers to report to the subs because the junior officers need to undergo a year of nuclear training before reporting for duty.

 

"There's a number of women in the training pipeline that have yet to receive their assignment," Hawkins said. "Only upon passing are you assigned the next step."

 

Women had been barred from serving on submarines until the Navy changed its policy in April 2010. Since that time, the Navy has assigned 43 women to six Ohio-class boats: the ballistic-missile submarines Wyoming, Louisiana and Maine; and the guided-missile submarines Florida, Georgia and Ohio.

 

Virginia-class submarines are built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in cooperation with Newport News Shipbuilding. Hull sections and interior components are built at Electric Boat's shipyard in Quonset Point, then barged to either Electric Boat's Groton shipyard or Newport News, in Virginia, depending upon which of the partners has been assigned final assembly of the boat.