Pentagon Opens All Combat Roles to Women

America is to allow women to serve in all roles in the military – including in front line combat roles – in a sweeping decision announced on Thursday by the defence secretary in a historic move to strike down gender barriers.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said women will still need to meet the same training and standards to fight in the field as men.

The military had gradually been opening many of those positions to women, including allowing them to serve on Navy submarines and in Army infantry units. They will also be able to compete for spots on elite Special Operations units, such as the Army’s Delta force and the Navy SEALs.

The decision overrules a request by the US Marine Corps, which sought to keep positions such as infantry, machine gunner, fire support, and reconnaissance open to men only.

The top Marine officer who made that recommendation, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September, and did not appear alongside Carter on Thursday.

Gen Dunford did not attend the news conference to announce the change, and when asked about that absence, Mr Carter said he has discussed his decision multiple times with the chairman. Around 100 women and 300 men volunteered to take part in the research, which showed that women were injured twice as often as men, were less accurate at shooting on every weapons system except the M4, and had trouble with combat tasks, including removing casualties.

The policy change will open up roughly 220,000 jobs and 10 percent of military specialties that have been closed to women. The Air Force and Navy have relatively few jobs that now exclude women, mainly in Special Forces units.

Women are being cleared to play a greater role in combat – and vie for thousands of jobs – after the military conducted an internal review of how they might perform in artillery, armor, and infantry roles.

“Even more importantly, our military will be better able to harness the skills and perspectives that talented women have to offer”, he said.

The services will have to begin putting plans in place by April 1.

Other members of Congress praised Carter’s decision as a good move for women, the military and the country, the Military Times reports.

Carter directed all military services to open all occupations to women within 30 days, the waiting period required by law, and to provide their plans for integration by that date.