The US Navy's plan to assign women to submarines and ban smoking below deck has met with little opposition among naval crews or lawmakers, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said on Wednesday.
"To date there's been very little if any pushback in any field, whether in Congress, or the submarine force, or the Navy writ large or families of submariners," Mabus told defense journalists.
The experience of women serving on naval ships for more than two decades showed that females could work with their male comrades in close quarters.
"We have a long experience with women on surface ships," he said.
Mabus, the highest ranking civilian in the US Navy, announced the plan last year and the move was formally announced in February by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
He said he did not think the change would have any negative effect on recruitment or retaining members of submarine crews.
"It's absolutely the right thing to do," he said, adding: "We literally could not run the Navy without women."
American women can already serve on the Navy's fleet of warships and fly 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 prohibiting women, but those who favor lifting the ban say subs could be outfitted with separate berths and bathrooms.
He also said service members had not raised major objections to a planned ban on smoking below deck on submarines, which will go into effect by the end of the year.
Mabus said the ban was meant to protect the health of non-smokers, who have to inhale large levels of second-hand smoke in the recycled air of a submarine.
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