New technology will allow the military to integrate pregnant crew … – Observer

By 2011, the UK military women could not serve on submarines. The justification for such a ban were high levels of carbon dioxide present there, who allegedly harmful to women’s health and fetal effects if the military were pregnant. This year, based on new scientific research that said those fears are unfounded, the British government decided to allow the admission of women in these devices. Three years later, the three officers arrived first and, just in case, the Navy ordered the installation of a new air filtration system that reduces carbon dioxide aboard submarines.

The new system can analyze and control the levels of this chemical compound in the environment of subsea closed and there is a particular concern for pregnant women, since, with the new filter, the fetus will not be exposed to excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, since the mother not breathe. This means that, from now on, the British Navy, a woman may continue to practice their profession even if pregnant.

And you can get pregnant on board. Or, at least, is what many military leaders fear. When discussing whether women should or should not be admitted into the submarine crew in 2010, has generated a debate – which lasted about 18 months – about the possibility of being able to see the sex scandals occur inside these compartments, passing long periods of time and mission where space is limited. It is, moreover, that the justification given by the United States Navy crew not to have women “the livability and privacy very limited on board.” In the UK Navy, sexual relations between members of the crew of a submarine is strictly prohibited.

The first three officers to serve in a British submarine were admitted in May this year. One of them, Lieutenant Alexandra Olsson, the BBC described the experience of working with 165 men how to live “with a very strange family.”

“Of course it is challenging, but women are perfectly capable of doing this job. I think change is always a little shocking, but I’m eager to see more women on board, “he said.

According to the British newspaper, in 2011 at least 150 military personnel from all pregnant the branches of the armed forces were repatriated from Afghanistan and Iraq. By 2014, the submarine section of the British Navy was the only branch of this force still had no women in their ranks. Last week, one of the 1st openly lesbian military of the armed forces of the United Kingdom became the fourth woman to join the crew of a submarine.

The air filtration system that will allow pregnant can continue to working on a submarine is already being tested in several of these vehicles and, during the next few years, should be part of the entire British fleet.

The Portuguese Navy has admitted women in the armed submarines since 2008.