The Navy’s newest, most sophisticated aircraft carrier doesn’t have urinals

Amid all its upgrades and advances, the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is lacking one feature: urinals.

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.

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.

“This is designed to give the ship flexibility because there aren’t any berthing areas that are dedicated to one sex or the other,” Operations Specialist 1st Class Kaylea Motsenbocker told Navy Times. “So if this space was needed for males, we could shift the females to other berthing areas and make this all male without any modification being necessary.”

 

Read the whole story from Business Insider.

Featured image courtesy of Robert Lang.