The US Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will be the first of its kind to have gender neutral bathrooms.

Each sleeping quarter in the ship, which can hold more than 5,000 sailors, will not have urinals in their bathrooms, but instead have seated toilets that can be used by anyone.

While seated toilets cost more, are less sanitary and take up more space than urinals, they do have their advantages.

A Navy spokeswoman said that having seated toilets will make it easier to switch room assignments for each sleeping quarter - or berth - between genders.

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Each sleeping quarter in the USS Gerald R Ford, which can hold more than 5,000 sailors, will not have urinals in their bathrooms, but instead have seated toilets that can be used by anyone

While seated toilets cost more, are less sanitary and take up more space than urinals, they will make it easier to switch room assignments between genders on the ship. Women account for 18 per cent of sailors in the Navy

'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.

Women account for 18 per cent of sailors in the Navy.

Named after the country's 38th president, the ship is the first of the new Ford class of aircraft carrier.

The vessel can carry more planes and operate with several hundred fewer sailors. Flying missions are expected to increase by a third.

Giving the ship gender-neutral bathrooms in a nice callback to former President Ford, who was in office in 1976 when women were first allowed to join the Naval Academy.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump ended federal protection for transgender students that required public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their chosen gender identity.

The administration lifted the federal guidelines in February that had been issued by the Obama administration back in May 2016.

Named after the country's 38th president, the ship is the first of the new Ford class of aircraft carrier. The vessel can carry more planes and operate with several hundred fewer sailors. Flying missions are expected to increase by a third

It is up to states and school districts to interpret federal anti-discrimination law and determine whether students should have access to restrooms in accordance with their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex.

Before being used by the military, the USS Gerald R Ford still must go through various tests and trials of its cutting-edge technology, including new systems to launch and land fighter jets.

A Government Accountability Office report released this month said the Navy could spend another $780 million preparing the carrier for battle.

With praise and a blessing for the military, Trump helped hand over the USS Ford to the Navy last week and said the state-of-the-art aircraft carrier will send a '100,000-ton message to the world' about America's military might when it is ultimately deployed.

US allies will rest easy, Trump said, but America's enemies will 'shake with fear' when they see the Ford cutting across the horizon.

The president and commander in chief of the US armed forces likened the $12.9billion warship to 'an incredible work of art' and boasted about the American labor that went into building a vessel that eventually will house thousands of sailors and crew members.

With praise and a blessing for the military, Trump helped hand over the USS Ford to the Navy last week

Trump, who visited the carrier in March, told Time magazine this year that the Navy should revert to using steam catapults to launch fighter jets because some of the USS Ford's state-of-the-art systems and technology 'costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it's no good'.

Construction started in 2009 and was to be completed by September 2015 at a cost of $10.5 billion.

The Navy has blamed the delays and budget overruns on the ship's advanced systems and technology, including electromagnetic launch systems for jets and drones that will replace steam catapults.

The warship also has a smaller island that sits farther back on the ship to make it quicker to refuel, re-arm and relaunch planes, and a nuclear power plant designed to allow cruising speeds of more than 30 knots and operation for 20 years without refueling.

The vessel completed sea trials in April but still will go through a battery of tests and workups at sea before becoming ready for deployment, work that is expected to cost nearly $780 million and take more than four years to complete, congressional auditors said this month.