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At the Surface Navy Association's (SNA) National Symposium currently held near Washington DC, Navy Recognition learned that Lockheed Martin is working on a "top side" (deck mounted) configuration for its Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) in addition to the vertically launched (from Mk-41) variant. The vertical launched LRASM was already successfully tested in September 2014.

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navyreco said:

SNA 2016: Kongsberg Showcasing LCS, DDG 51 and LPD 17 Fitted With Naval Strike Missile

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Jeff Head said:

I can see what they are driving at...but the idea of surface strike missiles on an LPD is simply very, very highly unlikely for the US Navy.

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“I want a family of surface-to-surface missiles. I want them on everything I can bolt them onto,” Fanta told Defense News.

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Iran's IRGC said on Wednesday it has released 10 American sailors who it had detained a day earlier, according to the Guards' statement broadcast on state television.

Iran detained the sailors aboard two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday in an incident that rattled nerves days ahead of the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers.

"Our investigations show the two U.S. Navy boats entered Iranian territorial waters due to a broken navigation system," IRGC Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Guards.

The incident could exacerbate tensions between Iran and the United States. Some conservatives in both countries have criticized the nuclear deal, under which Iran will curb its nuclear activities in exchange for lifting of sanctions. The deal is due to be implemented in the coming days.

Iran's armed forces chief, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, said the incident should demonstrate Iranian strength to "troublemakers" in the U.S. Congress, which has sought to put pressure on Iran after the nuclear deal.

And at a presidential campaign rally in the United States, Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who accuses President Barack Obama of being weak on foreign policy, described the incident as "an indication of where the hell we're going."

De-escalation

Attributing the boats' incursion into Iranian waters to a navigation error marked a de-escalation in rhetoric. Earlier, the Guards had said the boats were "snooping" in Iranian territory and said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had demanded an apology from Washington.

The IRGC, the Islamic Republic's praetorian guard, is highly suspicious of U.S. military activity near Iran's borders and many senior officers suspect Washington of pursuing regime change in Tehran.

The IRGC operates land and naval units separate to the regular armed forces and stages frequent wargames in the Gulf, which separates Iran from its regional rival Saudi Arabia and a U.S. naval base in Bahrain.

Last month, the U.S. Navy said an IRGC vessel fired unguided rockets near the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for crude oil that connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Iran denied the vessel had done so.

In April 2015, the Guards seized a container ship belonging to Maersk, one of the world's major shipping lines, in the Gulf because of a legal dispute between the company and Iran. The ship and its 24 crew members were released after 10 days.

The Guards have also seized British servicemen on two occasions, in 2004 and 2007, and a civilian British yacht crew in 2009. On each occasion the sailors were released unharmed after several days.

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At the Surface Navy Association's (SNA) National Symposium currently held near Washington DC, General Atomics Electromagnetics unveils for the first time its "Multi-mission Medium Range Railgun Weapon System". Brochures and a poster at SNA 2016 showed the weapon system fitted on board a Freedom variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

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Jura said:

what freaking happened?!
Iran's IRGC says has released detained US sailors: State TV

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

Iran is going to milk it for all the propaganda they can.

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Wednesday morning, Iran released 10 American sailors unharmed whose riverine boats drifted near Iranian waters, ending nearly 16 hours of tense negotiations.

The release was announced by Iran and by the U.S. 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain. The sailors departed Farsi Island at 11:45 a.m. local time aboard the Riverine Command Boats they were captured in. They were later picked up by a military aircraft, according to the release, and other sailors took the RCBs to Bahrain, the original destination.

"The Navy will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors presence in Iran," the release said.

Iran had accused the sailors of "snooping" on their activities at Iran's Farsi Island in the Arabian Gulf, which is a base of Iran's elite paramilitary force where the 10 sailors were held overnight.

Iran’s semiofficial news agency says the sailors were detained Tuesday after straying into Iranian waters in the Arabian Gulf.

The sailors were held overnight on Farsi Island, a base for the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC said Wednesday that “it has released the US marines and their vessels in international waters,” as quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Following technical and operational investigations and in interaction with relevant political and national security bodies of the country and after it became clear that the US combat vessels' illegal entry into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters was the result of an unpurposeful action and a mistake and after they extended an apology, the decision was made to release them," the IRGC statement continued.

The Iranians reportedly seized the GPS equipment on the riverine command boats, a 49-foot-long jet-propelled attack craft that can speed up to 43 knots and that boasts sensitive communications gear for use as a command vessel.

A video released Wednesday by the Fars news agency appears to show the 10 sailors surrendering, as they knelt on the deck of the riverine boats, hands on their heads. The riverine command boats were docked at a pier on Farsi Island, where Iranian officials scoured the high-tech vessels for secrets. They found a binder of riverine forces checklists and took shots of the crew cockpit.

The sailors appear to have been detained in a white-walled room, where they rested on the carpet with pillows as they awaited their release.

Overnight, the BBC reported that Iran demanded an apology from the U.S. for invading its territorial waters and that the U.S. obliged.

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