Real-life Captain Kirk to command US fleet's most advanced ship

Yup, there's a real-life Captain James Kirk. And he's commanding the fleet's most advanced vessel.

 

Unfortunately for Star Trek purists, his middle name isn't Tiberius and his vessel isn't named the USS Enterprise.

 

The real-life Kirk—Capt. James A. Kirk—hails from Bethesda, Maryland and raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania, unlike Star Trek's Kirk, who was born in Riverside, Iowa.

 

Commissioned at the US Naval Academy in 1990, he has served in afloat and ashore billets as a Surface Warfare Officer.

 

His stints include the USS Fife (DD 991), USS The Sullivans (DDG 68), USS Hue City (CG 66), USS John S. McCain (DDG 56). He also served as a gas turbine inspector on the staff of Commander, Pacific Fleet.

 

Most recently, he commanded the USS De Wert (FFG 45) and served as operations officer for Carrier Strike Group Seven, Ronald Reagan Strike Group.

 

Ashore, Captain Kirk served as Executive Assistant to the Navy’s Chief of Legislative Affairs and as an Action Officer on the Joint Staff.

 

He attended the US Naval War College and US Army War College graduating with Masters Degrees in National Security Studies.

 

Presently, he serves as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Surface Warfare and is the prospective commanding officer of USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000).

 

USS Zumwalt

 

Now, for the fun part: Kirk will be commanding the USS Zumwalt, a stealth vessel that could rival the USS Enterprise in terms of high-tech goodies.

 

Tech site Ars Technica described the $3.5-billion vessel as "a floating data center—armed with missiles and robot guns."

 

Zumwalt is a floating virtual data center powered by "off-the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over six million lines of software code," it added.

 

With the systems, the ship's commanding officer and crew can control the ship's systems including sensors, missile launchers, and guns.

 

This is where the operations center of the Zumwalt would likely have something in common with the fictional USS Enterprise's bridge.

 

"Every console on the Zumwalt will be equipped with touch screens and software capable of taking on the needs of any operator on duty, and big screens on the forward bulkhead will display tactical plots of sea, air, and land," it said.

 

Ars Technica said the ship uses off-the-shelf hardware, mostly IBM blade servers running Red Hat Linux and placed in 16 ruggedized server rooms called Electronic Modular Enclosures (EMEs).

 

It said each EME has its own shock and vibration damping, power protection, water cooling systems, and electromagnetic shielding to counter interference from the ship's radar and other big radio frequency emitters.

 

A redundantly switched network system connects all of the ship's systems over Internet protocols, but there will be "old" sound-powered phones for emergencies.

 

Meanwhile, the ship's guns are automated and can be operated by an operations center watch stander.

 

"Theoretically, the ship could even be steered from the ops center—the ship is piloted by computer, not a helmsman. And all of these tasks are performed from the same type of console," Ars Technica said.

 

So far, the Zumwalt's software has shipped six times, and a seventh version will be installed before the vessel has its shakedown cruise.

 

"Another upgrade will be installed post-delivery, and continual improvements will be made as the software is deployed to the other two ships in the class," Ars Technica said. — TJD, GMA News