Washington (CNN) The Pentagon announced Friday that it is introducing new restrictions on international military students undergoing training in the US that will ban them from possessing firearms. The new rules follow December's deadly attack at a naval air station in Florida, which was carried out by a Saudi Air Force officer.

"Going forward we will put several new policies and security procedures in place to protect our people, programs, and installations. These include new restrictions on international military students for possession and use of firearms, and control measures for limiting their access to military installations and U.S. government facilities," Garry Reid, the Director for Defense Intelligence (Counterintelligence, Law Enforcement, and Security) in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, told reporters Friday.

The new policies will also include new standards for training and education on detecting and reporting insider threats and will establish "new vetting procedures that include capabilities for continuous monitoring of international military students while enrolled in U.S.-based training programs," Reid said.

Trainees will also be restricted in terms of how far they can travel away from their training location during their downtime, a restriction that US service members are also sometimes subjected to during training programs.

The Department of Justice has said that the 21-year-old Saudi Air Force second lieutenant, Mohammed Alshamrani, who killed three American sailors in the December shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola was motivated by jihadist ideology, and the Department of Justice concluded that his actions were an act of terrorism.

Read More