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Women’s basketball is finally getting the queer rom-com it deserves.

Media company Run-A-Muck has announced that it is developing “Courtside,” a sports romantic comedy set in the world of professional basketball. WNBA All-Star Gabby Williams, two-time WNBA champion Sydney Colson and 2022 WNBA champion Theresa Plaisance are among those set to appear in the movie, according to Deadline.

“If you like ‘Love & Basketball’ and ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ and ‘Bring It On’ but you found yourself wondering, ‘Could this maybe be a little bit gayer?’ We have great news for you,” Colson said in a Thursday Instagram post. “The answer is yeah, you could always make it gayer.”

Colson, a Texas A&M standout who was drafted to the WNBA in 2011, is also one of the executive producers on “Courtside.”

Written by “Abbott Elementary” writer-producer Brittani Nichols and directed by Carly Usdin, the movie will follow an injury-plagued women’s basketball superstar with championship ambitions who is thrown for a loop when she falls for a teammate.

“Making a movie like this is super exciting to me because I grew up playing basketball,” Colson added. “I would have loved as a young person to see my story depicted … on screen so to see a team of people who want to ensure that others can see characters and storylines that feel personal and familiar to them. I’m so excited about it.”

Colsen and Plaisance, who won a championship together as teammates on the Las Vegas Aces in 2022, share a podcast and also starred in the unscripted buddy comedy “The Syd + TP Show” together. Williams, who plays for France in international competition, currently plays on the Golden State Valkyries.

“It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this kind of excitement to surround women’s basketball, and I’m excited to blend my love of sports, lesbian tension, and comedy into one project,” Nichols told Deadline. According to the outlet, Run-A-Muck co-founder and “The L Word” star Jennifer Beals is also slated to appear in the project.

The U.S. Navy sees a future in which uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV) work together with submersibles loaded with SEALs. The service has already been conducting tests to explore how crewed-uncrewed teaming under the waves might work. UUVs could help extend the operational reach of operators riding in SDVs, as well as help reduce their vulnerability, but there are communications and other challenges still to overcome.

Navy Capt. Mike Linn shared details about the Navy’s plans for teaming UUVs and various types of swimmer delivery vehicles (SDV) with our Howard Altman on the sidelines of the annual SOF Week conference yesterday. Linn currently works within the Naval Special Warfare program office (PMS 340), a division of the Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC).

“That is the goal,” Linn said when asked about the Navy’s view of teaming UUVs with SDVs, the latter of which the service also refers to as SEAL Delivery Vehicles.

As it stands now, the main workhorse of the Navy’s SDV force is the Mk 11, which is just under 22 and a half feet long. It is operated by a crew of two and can carry six passengers. Also referred to as the Shallow Water Combat Submersible (SWCS), the Mk 11 is what is known as a “wet” submersible design, where the occupants are exposed to water the entire time during their voyage. The Mk 11, like its predecessors, can be launched and recovered from submerged submarines with specialized Dry Deck Shelters (DDS) attached to their hulls.

The Navy has also acquired several new Dry Combat Submersibles (DCS) in recent years, which feature a pressurized cabin with space for a crew of two and eight passengers. This means the larger DCSs can operate at greater depths than the SWCSs. They also deliver their occupants to the destination dry and relatively warm, helping to reduce operator fatigue and certain potential health risks. The DCS does have the limitation of being too big to fit inside existing DDSs. At least publicly, this is understood to translate to the need for support from a mothership on the surface.

There are multiple UUV designs in the Navy’s inventory today, as well. These are largely torpedo-shaped designs intended to be deployed from and retrieved by vessels riding on the surface or submarines. In recent years, the service has been working to expand its ability to launch and recover UUVs from submerged submarines without the need to send out divers to help. Historically, underwater retrieval of UUVs, in particular, has been a largely manual affair, often conducted via DDS.

In terms of the potential benefits of UUV-SDV teams, “underwater systems like the SDV and UUVs afford reach underwater,” Capt. Linn explained. “So, if you can get somewhere in an SDV and then launch a UUV to go do something, then that would make you more capable.”

“You could extrapolate, just as you would have an unmanned wingman in an aircraft, or a maritime surface co-pilot, the same can be said for underseas,” he continued. “So, if you have an unmanned system with you underwater, then I suppose you can use your imagination.”

“A good example might be a harbor,” he added. “Technology is in a state where passing through the mouth of a harbor, a choke point, is maybe much more well defended. Or it is a choke point, and they don’t want to pass there with a big manned platform. So if you send a smaller unmanned platform through, then that’s pretty logical.”

“It can be an overall risk-reducer,” he further noted. A key mission set for Navy UUVs is scouting ahead for mines and other potential hazards, and otherwise helping commanders establish a better ‘view’ of the battlespace above and below the waves. This could all be especially valuable for SEALs during high-risk missions, including ones being conducted covertly or clandestinely.

Capt. Linn was also candid about the challenges the Navy still has to overcome to make this underwater teaming ability a reality. He described both crewed SDVs and UUVs as being “deaf, dumb, and blind” in terms of their current ability to communicate and coordinate with each other to ensure they are both in the right place at the right time.

“Through-water data transfer is difficult, and so the modality that you choose while remaining survivable is kind of difficult. And, also, in order to do that, you have to have pretty well synchronized systems,” he said. “We’re looking at all ways of transferring data through water. It can be acoustic, [and] there’s light-based transfers.”

There are other questions still be answered around how UUVs teamed with the SDVs would operate, including where the uncrewed companions would be launched from. If the SDVs have to carry them to the launch point themselves, this could present additional challenges.

“You’ve got to consider your volume in the SDV, which is not great,” Capt. Linn noted. “Are you going to strap it to the outside?”

He did confirm that testing is already being conducted to delve deeper into this potential pairing. He said that the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD), headquartered in Panama City, Florida, has been leading the charge.

“I think we’re still years away from having something at the reliability level that they want,” Capt. Linn added. “Again, back to the actual ones and zeros, and the modality of data transmission, [being at the] right time, right place,” and doing all of this “where you have to be survivable, that’s difficult.”

As Capt. Linn has made clear, significant hurdles will need to be cleared before UUV-SDV taming can become a reality. However, there are also real operational benefits that would come from pushing toward this goal.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Poland has confirmed it is going to arm its M28 Skytruck twin-turboprop utility aircraft for the counter-drone role, a development that is unique for a NATO air arm. This comes after the aircraft from which the M28 was derived, the Soviet-era Antonov An-28 Cash, has found notable success in the same capacity in Ukraine. You can read more about that in our recent coverage here.

Speaking at a panel discussion on air superiority at the recent Defence24 Days event, Maj. Gen. Ireneusz Nowak, the inspector of the Polish Air Force, confirmed that work was underway to modify the M28 for the mission.

“Following the signing of the contract between the Armed Forces Support Inspectorate and the contractor, the first prototype of the armed [M28] will undergo modifications to equip the aircraft with gun armament,” Nowak said. He also referred to the success of the An-28-based solution in Ukraine.

Interestingly, Nowak added that other undisclosed aircraft will also be deployed by Poland in a similar role.

Although the An-28 was manufactured in Ukraine, the production line in that country has long since closed down, meaning that aircraft and spares are limited. On the other hand, PZL Mielec in Poland launched production of the M28 Skytruck development in the early 1990s, and limited manufacture continues to this day. Meanwhile, the Polish Air Force currently operates around two dozen M28s, primarily for transport work.

In Ukrainian hands, the An-28 was initially armed with a six-barrel Gatling-type M134 Minigun, which is pintle-mounted in the cabin door. The aircraft’s high-wing configuration provides a notably wide field of fire for the weapon, which generally fires between 3,000 and 6,000 rounds per minute, or 50 and 100 shots every second.

Subsequently, the Ukrainian aircraft has been adapted to launch two different types of interceptor drones, providing another means of defeating their targets. You can read about this development here.

The primary targets of the Ukrainian An-28 are Shahed/Geran long-range one-way attack drones.

After being vectored to an area where the Russian drones are known to be flying, the crew uses an infrared camera, mounted externally on a turret, as well as night-vision goggles (NVGs), to help engage them.

The An-28 and M28 both offer a significant short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability, making them ideal for operating in and out of shorter and more austere forward airstrips. Ukraine has certainly made use of this capability, and Poland is likely to do the same if it formally adopts the drone-hunting M28.

At this point, it is not entirely clear if there are firm Polish plans to introduce a drone-hunting M28, most likely via conversion or potentially even new production, or if the initial focus will be on testing of the prototype.

As we reported in the past, even before the armed An-28 appeared in Ukraine, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) had explored the possibility of converting an M28 derivative into a small side-firing gunship, a sort of miniature take on the AC-130 concept, to potentially be able to transfer that capability to American allies and partners. This was based on the C-145A Combat Coyote formerly used by AFSOC, and would have been armed with twin 50-caliber GAU-18 machine guns.

The threat posed by drones to Poland was hammered home last September, when around 20 unarmed military drones entered its airspace after allegedly being launched from Russia. The unprecedented incursion led to the Polish Air Force and other NATO militaries scrambling aircraft. Up to four drones were confirmed to have been shot down, most by the Royal Netherlands Air Force, operating from a base in Poland.

The Polish government concluded that the drone incursion was a deliberate provocation. But it also underscored the vulnerability of Poland’s military and civil infrastructure and cities were it come under full-scale attack by armed drones. In such a scenario, Russia would likely employ them alongside ballistic and cruise missiles and decoys, making an even greater challenge for the air defense network.

There is also the fact that fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missiles offer a very expensive, albeit high-end solution to the drone threat. Compared to missiles, a gun-armed tuboprop comes with a much lower cost-per-engagement and offers greater magazine depth, and potentially a far lower chance of major collateral damage.

Of course, as in Ukraine, Polish counter-drone M28s would be operated as part of a networked air defense system.

Nowak noted that the Polish Army’s forthcoming AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters and its new AW149 combat support helicopters are also expected to be used to counter drones. Of these, the AW149 is already being adapted to use European 70mm rockets with laser guidance, and will also be fitted with guns. Meanwhile, the counter-drone mission is one of increasing importance for U.S. Army AH-64s, and for attack helicopter operators at large.

Nowak said that the U.S.-made laser-guided 70mm Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) rockets will meanwhile be integrated on Polish Air Force F-16 fighters and FA-50 light combat aircraft. The APKWS could potentially be an option for the M28, too.

Within its air defense branch, Poland plans by 2032 to introduce new air and missile defense systems procured under the Narew and Wisła programs, which cover the short-range and medium-range air defense segments, respectively. Directed-energy systems will also be a focus of future planning and could be harnessed for air defense roles.

In terms of air defense sensors, Poland is also making significant investments. It acquired two Saab 340 airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) aircraft under a crash program, and is also planning to field a new airborne early warning system based on an aerostat — a type of uncrewed tethered airship. In the past, Poland has said that the main focus of the aerostat system will be detecting various tiers of drones, as well as helicopters and potentially other lower and slower-flying crewed aircraft. Of critical value here will be its persistent look-down capability that will span the border, keeping watch for incursions from the east.

Once again, while the long-term Polish plans for the counter-drone version of the M28 remain to be confirmed, the fact that a major NATO air force in Europe is taking the drone threat so seriously is worthy of note in itself.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The Other Bennet Sister proved to be a massive hit with period drama fans last month.

A star of The Other Bennet Sister already has two major new projects lined up.

BBC audiences were captivated by the Pride and Prejudice-inspired period drama The Other Bennet Sister, which retells the classic story from the viewpoint of Mary Bennet (portrayed by Ella Bruccoleri).

While the series predominantly centres on Mary’s individual journey, it does track some of the Jane Austen novel’s more central characters, including snobbish social climber Miss Bingley.

In this BBC adaptation, she is portrayed by none other than Sex Education star Tanya Reynolds, who now has two exciting productions on the horizon.

The first of these ventures is dark comedy Dog Person, a film which the 34 year old is not only appearing in but marks her directorial debut.

She will assume the role of Sally, a dental receptionist who is “overwhelmed by life’s pressures and develops a desire to relinquish control, leading to a dark, unsettling fantasy”.

Reynolds won’t be the sole recognisable face to appear in Dog Person either, as she will be accompanied by the likes of Happy Valley villain and Grantchester legend James Norton.

Completing the principal cast is ITV Downton Abbey and Twenty Twenty Six star Hugh Bonneville.

Dog Person isn’t Reynolds’ sole forthcoming project, with Ted Lasso enthusiasts thrilled to learn that she will feature in the highly anticipated fourth season.

Three years have passed since fans last caught a glimpse of the award-winning Apple TV comedy-drama, and a handful of fresh faces are set to join everyone’s beloved football coach.

Little has been revealed about Reynolds’ character, though she is set to play a new assistant coach for a women’s football team.

Fortunately, the wait is almost at an end, with Ted Lasso season four due to make its debut on Wednesday, August 5, on Apple TV, with episodes dropping on a weekly basis.

The Other Bennet Sister is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.