In September, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jay Johnson and Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Admiral Frank Bowman both spoke out against the idea. Evacuation from a submarine by helicopter always is dangerous. The SAIC report was comprehensive, and laid out many reasons why having women in submarines would not work. A key concern was that complications raised by women on board would undermine the operational effectiveness of the crew. I cannot think of any reasons why women should serve in U.S. submarines.
Impediments are formidable and deserve widespread discussion.
One of the most important impediments is the issue of pregnancy. First, a submarine is almost never within six hours of emergency medical care. Aborting a mission to make a flank-speed run of several days to an area where a woman in medical distress could be evacuated is a dangerous proposition. In any open-ocean area, evacuation would have to be done through the bridge hatch on top of the sail most of the time. Second, during the past 25 years our attack submarines have been designed without enough bunks.