Women reportedly being allowed in Navy SEALs

The U.S. Navy is planning to open its SEAL teams to women who can pass the extremely tough six-month training regimen, the service’s top officer tells my colleagues at Defense News.

“Because these standards are foundationally put in place and proven in a whole host of missions and backgrounds, including not just SEAL, but special operating forces DOD-wide”.

“We did all the Navy specific work on this – but that will have to be part of a larger joint discussion”.

In the latest sign of a movement to widen access to roles long forbidden to women across all branches of the US military, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, said “there is no reason” that women who measure up should be barred.

The military services are poised to admit most women to most front-line combat jobs, the Associated Press reports.

“Based on early talks, officials say the Army, Navy and Air Force likely will not seek exceptions that close any jobs to women”.

“If that is a good standard, why isn’t it a good enough standard for anybody?” he said.

Two women are about to make history by becoming the first female soldiers to graduate from the Army’s exhausting Ranger School. But military leaders have increasingly moved toward gender neutral qualifications for positions.

The push to integrate the storied SEAL brotherhood is coming on the heels of a comprehensive review led by Losey that recommended women be allowed under the same exacting standards required of male candidates. The Marine Corps, however, will reportedly continue to allow only men to fill ground-combat positions. Officials did not reveal to Defense News when they plan to allow women to compete for a spot.