Amid all its upgrades and advances, the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is lacking one feature: urinals.
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The Navy's newest, most sophisticated aircraft carrier doesn't have urinals
The Navy has stocked its newest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, with new and upgraded technology — but one feature is missing.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in Dry Dock 12 at Newport News Shipbuilding.
Every bathroom on the Ford is, for the first time, gender-neutral, equipped with flush toilets and stalls, according to Navy Times.
Bathroom-design experts have said sit-down toilets are less sanitary and take up more space, and most of the Ford's crew members are men. (Women are only about 18% of the Navy.)
But the Navy has said getting rid of urinals has advantages for current and future operations.
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Making every bathroom accessible to all of the ship's sailors will make things more convenient for sailors, the Navy has said. And bathrooms that can be used by either gender mean the Navy can reassign them without making any design changes, should the crew's makeup change.
“When we look back, the Ford took on some major goals for ourselves, some real reach goals in terms of technology. And so as we look forward to designing and building ships of the future, particularly given how quickly technology is advancing, maybe we take smaller steps," Adm. John Richardson, the Navy's chief of naval operations, told USNI News prior to the Ford's commissioning on July 22.
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