Navy Captain James Kirk prepares to skipper USS Zumwalt into the future

Captain Kirk's futuristic-looking vessel sports cutting-edge technology, new propulsion and powerful armaments, but this ship isn't the Starship Enterprise.

The skipper of the stealthy USS Zumwalt is Navy Captain James Kirk, and he's used to the jokes about the name he shares with the TV starship commander played by actor William Shatner.

Kirk doesn't mind the jokes and takes it in stride.

"I don't take any offence," he said in an interview. "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."

While it's no starship, the technology-laden Zumwalt 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 minimises its radar signature. Its unusual wave-piercing hull will reduce the ship's wake.

It's the first US surface warship to use electric propulsion, and 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.