The superintendent of the US Naval Academy is confident the school could produce female navy Seals, if the military changes its policy to allow them to serve in that special operations role.

Male graduates who go into that service assignment are the most successful of any group of men that go into special operations across the country and that shows the academy has a formula that works, Vice Admiral Walter “Ted” Carter said Monday.

If the military opens up special operations to women, Carter said he has “no doubt that our women will do very well in that program, just as they have in all other communities”.

Last week, the commander of the navy’s special warfare units recommended that the Seals and combat crew jobs be open to women. Rear Admiral Brian Losey noted there are “no insurmountable obstacles” to opening the jobs to women, but he warned there are “foreseeable impacts” to integrating them into ground combat units.

The US military services are expected to send their final recommendations on opening more positions to women to Defense Secretary Ash Carter soon.

In August, two women became the first to complete US Army Ranger School, as part of a pilot program. The service shortly after announced that it would open the elite school to all soldiers, regardless of gender.

A month later, the US marine corps released a study that showed all-male combat units broadly outperformed mixed-gender units on everything from reaching targets quickly to firing accurately with heavier weapons.

But navy secretary Ray Mabus was quick to criticize the study, telling National Public Radio he thought it was flawed, in part because of the mind-set of the volunteers who participated.

“It started out with a fairly large component of the men thinking this is not a good idea and women will never be able to do this. When you start out with that mindset you’re almost presupposing the outcome,” Mabus said.

Mabus, an advocate for opening combat roles to women, told NPR that outside analysis had shown there were ways to ensure that women and men meet the same rigorous standards, pointing to one study by the Center for Naval Analyses.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.