Captain Kirk takes command of high-tech US navy warship

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**Jihadin**

Captain Kirk's futuristic-looking ship sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments – but it isn't the Starship Enterprise. The skipper of the USS Zumwalt is Navy Captain James Kirk, and yes, he's used to the jokes about the name he shares with the TV starship commander played by William Shatner.

"I don't take any offense," he told The Associated Press. "If it's a helpful moniker that brings attention to help us to do what we need to do to get the ship into the fleet and into combat operations, then that's fine."

The technology-laden Zumwalt, which is taking shape at Maine's Bath Iron Works, is unlike any other US warship. The navy's largest destroyer will feature a composite deckhouse with hidden radar and sensors and an angular shape that minimizes its radar signature. Its unusual wave-piercing hull will reduce the ship's wake.

The Star Trek comparisons were inevitable even before Star Trek actor George Takei used his popular Facebook page to point out the similarities of Kirk's name. Kirk said the jokes about his name began early in his career, though he points out that his name is James A Kirk, while the captain of the Starship Enterprise was James T Kirk. That didn't stop him from earning the call sign "Tiberius", the fictional Kirk's middle name, while working with an aircraft carrier strike group. That was later shortened to just "T".

While he doesn't mind the Starfleet jokes, Kirk said that people sometimes focus too much on the technology incorporated in the futuristic-looking Zumwalt.

"Yes, we're going to talk about all of the wonderful technology, but it still requires the sailors who are going to bring her to life," he said.

The Zumwalt is the first US surface warship to use electric propulsion; its power plant is capable of producing enough electricity to light up a small city and to power future weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun. The number of sailors needed to stand watch will be reduced through the use of cameras and video monitors, and the bridge will indeed look like something from Star Trek, with two chairs surrounded by nearly 360 degrees of video monitors.

A handful of reporters accompanying defence secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday got a first look at the ship's interior. The 610ft ship, which will be christened in the spring, has the highest level of automation on a US surface warship and will cost more than $3.5bn, a price tag so high that the navy was forced to reduce the number of ships in the series to just three.

The Federation has arrived....dammit Seaward your suppose to keep track of this sort of thing's from the USN...WTH......Even the USMC can't touch this "EPICNESS"

**Snrub**

Well this can only end hilariously.

**LordofHats**

Snrub wrote:
Well this can only end hilariously.

Or, awesomely.

**Seaward**

I admit it, I dropped the ball on this. Though in my defense, I don't keep up with the surface warfare side of things as much as the aviation side.

It's a weird-looking boat if you've never seen it, by the way.

**master of ordinance**

Is that a boat or a floating bunker with a ram attached?

**d-usa**

It would be long career, but if he doesn't get the Enterprise in 2025 my faith in humanity will suffer...

**Nevelon**

master of ordinance wrote:
Is that a boat or a floating bunker with a ram attached?

Why can't it be both?

**chaos0xomega**

Old news.

d-usa wrote:
It would be long career, but if he doesn't get the Enterprise in 2025 my faith in humanity will suffer...

Errr... you know the Enterprise was retired right? Besides the fact that carrier captains are all aviators, that can't happen.

**d-usa**

chaos0xomega wrote:
Old news.

d-usa wrote:
It would be long career, but if he doesn't get the Enterprise in 2025 my faith in humanity will suffer...

Errr... you know the Enterprise was retired right?

Highlighted that for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-80)

I know the current one is retired, but I figured that having the next one go into service would be a great opportunity for a publicity stunt.

Besides the fact that carrier captains are all aviators, that can't happen.

I didn't realize you had to be an aviator to be a carrier captain, what a lost opportunity

**Medium of Death**

No picture in the OP, no link... fantastic work.

Ship looks quite strange, sleek yet boxy. In the picture that Seaward posted it reminds me of a submarine.

**hotsauceman1**

That thing looks like a submarine.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Am I the only one who thinks the navy should go one up and find one of the boat driver people with the last name of Sulu?

And I hope to God that this Kirk takes to calling his Chief Medical Officer (whatever theyre called on a navy boat) "Bones"

**Seaward**

Medium of Death wrote:
No picture in the OP, no link... fantastic work.

Ship looks quite strange, sleek yet boxy. In the picture that Seaward posted it reminds me of a submarine.

Almost looks like what an F-117 would look like if you turned it into a boat, doesn't it?

Doesn't it?

DOESN'T IT? HMMMMMMMMMMMM.

**Wyrmalla**

Perhaps its designed to confused the enemy by looking as though its upside down. Still, cool looking ship, it'd be nice if this were feasible enough a design to catch on and go into full use.

**Seaward**

Wyrmalla wrote:
Perhaps its designed to confused the enemy by looking as though its upside down. Still, cool looking ship, it'd be nice if this were feasible enough a design to catch on and go into full use.

It's feasible. What it ain't is cheap.

**Crazy_Carnifex**

I wonder, is it to late to just name the ship The Enterprise? because if it is at all possible, it must be done.

**chaos0xomega**

Seaward wrote:
Wyrmalla wrote:
Perhaps its designed to confused the enemy by looking as though its upside down. Still, cool looking ship, it'd be nice if this were feasible enough a design to catch on and go into full use.

It's feasible. What it ain't is cheap.

The Zumwalt class uses a tumblehome design, which was actually really common for centuries (think wooden warships), but once we started building steel warships, fell by the wayside (with the exception of the French and Russians) due to inherent instability to the design which basically offset any advantages you might otherwise derive from it. The final nail in the coffin was when four of the five Borodino class pre-dreadnoughts (the only four present actually, although technically I think they had a hybrid hull design) were lost at the Battle of Tsushima, which was taken by some as evidence that the tumblehome hullform was inferior.

The LCS-2 also uses the tumblehome design, though they combined it with a trimaran configuration to offset the instability issue, though I'm not sure how successful that has been from some of the things I've been reading.

**Seaward**

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
I wonder, is it to late to just name the ship The Enterprise? because if it is at all possible, it must be done.

That name's spoken for.