A US warship featured in a Hollywood movie starring Rihanna will visit New Zealand next month.

File Photo: US Navy Destroyer. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

1 News has learned the USS Sampson will visit Auckland for the navy's 75th anniversary celebrations next month.

It is the first time a US navy ship will sail into New Zealand waters since an anti-nuclear legislation was passed 30 years ago.

The Government invited the US Navy to participate in the commemorations last year, and vice president Joe Biden formally accepted when he visited in July.

The Sampson - a guided missile destroyer - is blown up off Hawaii in the 2012 movie Battleship.

Neither the New Zealand or US government would comment, saying details of the visit will be announced in "due course".

The US won't confirm or deny which ships are nuclear armed or carry nuclear weapons.