Shipmate: you're driving a Rolls!

If we can't make 'em - at least the Brits can.

Rolls-Royce has been selected to supply the U.S. Navy's most advanced surface combatant ship with the world's most powerful marine gas turbine.

Four MT30 gas turbine generator sets will be supplied for two DDG-1000 Zumwalt Class destroyers, with deliveries of the 36MW MT30 sets to begin in 2009.

An MT30 generator set currently provides power to the U.S. Navy's DDG-1000 Land Based Test Site in Philadelphia and the MT30 has also been selected to power the first two Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat Ships.

Yes, I know - no longer the same company that makes the car...but still.

Here is a fun question I like to ask my friends at the Washington Navy Yard - what percentage of parts of said system are not produced or producible in the United States? How many months of spare parts do we have in storage in the United States? Just asking.