ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Huge changes are coming to the way sailors and officers pursue their careers, meet fitness standards and conduct their daily lives .

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced a host of radical changes during a speech to midshipmen here Wednesday, including the way sailors are advanced and promoted, ending general military training, expanding career flexibility, easing body fat standards, and offering sure-to-be-popular moves like 24-hour gyms and expanded child-care hours.

First up: The end of general military training via Navy Knowledge Online, starting June 1.

"Command triads will determine if and when training is needed," Mabus said. "And to make relevant training more accessible and efficient, I've asked the chief of naval personnel and the Office of Naval Research to develop mobile applications for fleet release in fiscal year 2016."

That doesn't include legally mandated training, like sexual assault prevention, that commands do in-person, but it does get rid of the check-the-block online modules sailors detest.

"You may hear sea-stories of mundane, arduous, and seemingly pointless GMT, but you won't experience it," Mabus told the thousands of midshipmen .

And after years of complaints from sailors, the Navy will "completely revamp" the body composition assessment, starting with the tape test.

"Our pass fail/system that only — and sometimes inaccurately — assesses one aspect of physical fitness is going to end," he said.

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The service is looking at the Air Force model, which tapes only the waist instead of the waist and neck. And on top of that, Mabus said, a BCA failure will no longer mean an overall physical fitness assessment failure, because sailors will still be able to take their physical readiness tests.

"In the Navy alone, last year, we separated 1,500 people — 1,500 sailors for failing the PFA," he said. "That wastes everybody's time and resources. That's more than we separated for drug use, for example."

New PT standards

To enforce a year-round culture of fitness, commanding officers will also be able to do random spot checks in between PFA tests. These won't be punitive, but if sailors fail BCA or PRT between tests, their commands can work with them to get them back in shape.

And for those who surpass standards, there will be a fitness patch to be worn on the outside of the new Navy PT suit, which comes out next year. Those who max out their PRT three cycles in a row, Mabus added, will be eligible for a new Outstanding Fitness Award.

Leadership has not yet decided whether it will be a ribbon or medal, but it will be worn on dress uniforms, a senior Navy official confirmed to Navy Times on Tuesday.

The discussion of physical standards continued after the speech, when midshipmen approached microphones to ask Mabus questions .

One mid asked whether the Navy Department's planned opening of remaining billets still closed to women — including Marine and Navy special warfare, and Marine infantry — would mean that physical standards will be lowered to accommodate them.

"My notion is, you set up gender-neutral standards. If you pass, you pass," Mabus replied . "Eighty percent of men can't pass [SEAL training]. Keep the standards. Do not lower standards in any regard."

The mid also asked wh allowed to serve in ground combat billets, but Mabus did not specifically answer.ether women might be added to the draft, if they'll be

"And since I don't see the draft coming back any time soon, I'm just going to tell you, I don't have any idea of what that would be," he said.

Expanding opportunities

Of the long list of initiatives Mabus is pushing, many deal with career and professional management.

The plan is to do away with year-groups for officers, the hard and fast system by which officers are pushed from tour to tour and ranked against each other. The new system will focus more on milestones, which would allow officers not ready for promotion to spend a few more years at their ranks, and fast track promotions for those who are ready .

Similarly, Mabus signaled a huge change for enlisted advancements. The Command Advancement Program, where commanding officers can spot promote their best sailors, will be retooled into the Meritorious Advancement Program and greatly expanded, including to sailors on shore duty, a long-standing request for many sailors.

On the flip side, Mabus said, COs will also have more leeway to separate sailors whom they feel aren't making the cut.

"You'll have more control over who you advance or who you separate without being subjected to a really cumbersome separation process," he said.

And for those looking to round out their resumes, the Navy is expanding the Career Intermission Program tenfold — from 40 to 400 billets — in which sailors will be able to take up to three years off. It is also opening up graduate education and industry internship options for officers.

There are plans to add 30 more spots for in-residence graduate education this year. And starting this fall, Mabus said, the Navy will send its best qualified officers for internships at Fortune 500 companies.

"When these officers return to the fleet, they'll bring industry's best practices with them," he said.

With the economy improving, the Navy is looking at ways to retain its best talent, particularly where women are concerned, because they leave the service at twice the rate of men.

Many women say they don't feel the Navy is conducive to raising a family, a senior Navy official told Navy Times on Tuesday, and so they get out.

To ease the burden, the Navy also plans to double maternity leave from six weeks to 12 weeks for new mothers and expand on-base child-care hours for parents .

Additionally, an updated co-location policy will allow dual military couples to be assigned to the same area while taking into account key billets that will equally benefit their careers.

Roll-out for these initiatives will take place as early as this year, spreading into 2017 for year-group changes and 2017 for new fitness policies.