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With female officers having served in the boomer force for nearly three years, the Navy is aiming for women to make up a significant portion of the ballistic-missile submarine force by 2020, one of the new waypoints in the silent service’s historic integration.
By 2020, the Navy plans to have women make up 20 percent of the enlisted crew on seven of the 18 Ohio-class submarines, according to the Navy’s latest integration plan. The plan also calls for enlisted women to begin serving on attack submarines after 2020, when the Block IV Virginia-class submarines begin entering the service.
“There are many very capable women with the talent and desire to succeed in the submarine force. Drawing from this talent enables us to maintain our undersea dominance,” said Lt. J.G. Eric Durie, spokesman for Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in a statement to Navy Times. “For these reasons, we have been working diligently to integrate enlisted women into the submarine force.
“We have a plan for this integration which we will discuss in detail once the congressional notification process has been completed later this year.”
Mabus has been the driving force for opening opportunities for women across the service in his five-year tenure.
More than 50 women now serve as officers on Ohio-class subs in 14 crews; thosesubmarines will be the first to integrate enlisted women beginning in 2016, officials said. They include:
■ The blue and gold crews aboard the ballistic-missile subs Maine, Wyoming and Louisiana.
■ The blue and gold crews aboard the guided-missile subs Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Georgia. .
A task force led by Rear Adm. Ken Perry, head of Submarine Group 2, has been working on the plan to bring enlisted women into the silent service since May 2013. Its plan was delivered to Congress the week of June 14.
The report lays out a long-range blueprint for the next phases of the integration effort, which could be sped up or slowed based on fleet feedback.
