Latest news with #MichaelFletcher
Spectator
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
How will the army's new Gurkhas fight without any guns?
The British Army's newest formation, the King's Gurkha Artillery (KGA), has unveiled the cap badge it will wear. This is a huge moment of symbolism for any army unit: the army is a federation of battalions and regiments which attract and inspire fierce loyalty, and it is at that level that British soldiers seek their real collective identity. 117 pages (seriously) of the Army Dress Regulations specify how cap badges are worn. In this case, however, the new badge – the crossed Gurkha khukhuri and a field gun representing the Royal Artillery – is concealing at least as much as it represents. I am absolutely in favour of raising more Gurkha units. The Nepalese warriors have been first-class soldiers in British service for 210 years, and, while most of the British Army has fallen consistently short in terms of recruitment over the past years, in 2023 the Brigade of Gurkhas recruited 204 candidates from 20,000 applicants. The commanding officer of the King's Gurkha Artillery, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Fletcher, said all the right things, that he and his soldiers are 'incredibly proud and honoured that His Majesty The King has approved the regimental badge' and that they 'look forward to an exciting future'. It seems wholly positive: the army's full-time trade-trained strength on 1 January 2025 stood at 71,151, its smallest since the 1770s. As Senator Sam Nunn of the Senate Armed Forces Committee once said, 'at some point numbers do count'. We need more soldiers. The truth is that the KGA is, at the moment, a characteristic piece of Ministry of Defence (MoD) legerdemain. It will not be combat-ready for several years, and it is an artillery formation without any guns. In April, defence minister Al Carns announced 'the formation of the 400-strong King's Gurkha Artillery'. But that number of 400 – a welcome enough boost, although by comparison Russia loses more than that every day in Ukraine – will only be at full strength and readiness after four years of recruitment and training. We are talking about a unit of the British Army of 2029, not now. Even the best trained gunners in the world will do us little good without guns. For nearly 30 years, a mainstay of the Royal Artillery was the AS-90 self-propelled howitzer, of which a total of 179 were procured. At the beginning of 2023, 30 were donated to Ukraine, but further transfers in 2024 and this year took that to 68, which, in addition to those already phased out, means that the British Army no longer operates the AS-90. The only conventional artillery now in British service (that is, setting aside rockets and missiles) is the Swedish-made Archer Artillerisystem 08. Like the AS-90, it has a 155 mm calibre, but with a longer range and a higher rate of fire. The problem is that the MoD only bought 14 Archers, as an 'interim replacement' for what was at the time the loss of 32 AS-90s, not the whole fleet. They are currently deployed by 19 Regiment Royal Artillery in the UK-led battlegroup in Estonia, part of Nato's enhanced forward presence to deter Russian military action. We are reminded again and again that Archer is an interim capability. The Royal Artillery is waiting for the RCH-155, a self-propelled gun based on the Boxer infantry fighting vehicle hull. Designed by Krauss-Maffei Wegman (now KNDS Deutschland), the RCH-155 will be built in the UK and in Germany. As of May, however, the MoD said that it was 'currently in the assessment phase' and 'it is not possible to provide a total figure [to be procured] at present'. Ministers hope it will enter service 'this decade', which will mean 2029 at the absolute earliest and refer to initial operating capability. Realistically, the RCH-155 will not reach full operational capability until 2032 or 2033, yet it was previously anticipated that it would replace Archer by 2030. In short, the KGA will not be an operational unit until 2029, and when it is, the Royal Artillery may still have little more in terms of close support than 14 Archers due to be phased out, and perhaps a small number of newly delivered RCH-155s. This is not increasing the army's capability; it is barely maintaining it. It certainly will not deliver what the Strategic Defence Review called'a tenfold increase in lethality'. This encapsulates the alternative reality the MoD currently seems to inhabit. Defence spending will rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP in 2027, most of which will be swallowed up by existing shortfalls. Ministers have pledged to reach the new Nato target of 5 per cent by 2035, a timescale long enough to be meaningless. The British Army is too small, understrength, poorly equipped and operating a stance of defence by IOU. Our allies know that, and our enemies know that. Ministers must know that too. The King's Gurkha Artillery will be a useful addition to the army's strength – but that is five years away, and yet the MoD frames it as a fait accompli. Five years may be more than we have.
Reuters
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Jets release K Greg Zuerlein after difficult 2024 season
May 16 - The New York Jets released veteran kicker Greg Zuerlein and signed defensive end Michael Fletcher on Friday. Zuerlein, 37, struggled with injuries and accuracy in 2024, the former Pro Bowler's third season with the Jets. He missed nine games with knee issues and made only 9 of 15 field-goal attempts and 13 of 14 extra points. Zuerlein converted 65 of 75 field goals (86.7 percent) in his first two seasons with New York. Over 13 seasons, he made 82.2 percent of his field goals (338 of 411) and 95.6 percent of his PATs (395 of 413). Zuerlein played for the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams (2012-19) and Dallas Cowboys (2020-21) before joining the Jets. The Jets created $2.4 million in salary cap savings by releasing "Greg the Leg," who has a $2.3 million dead cap hit for 2025. They have kickers Anders Carlson and Caden Davis on the roster. Fletcher was undrafted in 2025. He played in 22 games at Michigan State (2019-22) and 23 games at Appalachian State (2023-24), totaling 11.5 sacks and 71 tackles with two fumble recoveries. --Field Level Media
The Age
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Handy horses use their loaf
'Gosh, Column 8 is bringing out the memories,' says Michael Fletcher of Ulsan, South Korea. 'The ice man delivering blocks of ice to the ice chest (C8) in my grandparents' home in Sans Souci, and the baker's horse-drawn cart, with horse unattended, slowly clopping along while the baker ran from side to side delivering bread. The horse would stop at the crossroad and wait for him to catch up.' 'We, too, had an ice chest,' writes David Morrison of Springwood. 'So if we wanted ice-cream for dessert, we would buy a block of it, packaged in cardboard, at the local milk bar and eat it as soon as possible after getting it home, meaning a few hundred metres on foot. I think I remember generous portions because it all had to go.' Viv Mackenzie of Port Hacking notes: 'An article claiming to prove dogs understand words popped up on my phone. That's old news to any dog owner who knows they can spell at least one word: W-A-L-K.' 'I watched the final of the Stawell Gift, and while many may have been disappointed that neither Gout Gout nor Lachlan Kennedy could overcome the handicaps in their respective semi-finals, who wasn't cheering for the aptly named Dash Muir?' asks George Zivkovic of Northmead. Granny can report that Dash finished a credible 5th, which the more callous members of this readership would call 'second-last'. 'Not everyone remembers Blue Hills (C8) fondly,' asserts Jillian Russell of Northbridge. 'When a possum got stuck in the cavity space in our weatherboard home in Melbourne in 1972, we called Pete the possum man for help. However, before he came, Blue Hills started on the radio and the sound of the theme song drove our possum right up the wall (and out to the roof)! Problem solved.' It wasn't all blue for Peter Buckley of Minnesota, USA, either: 'While many downed tools to listen to Blue Hills, my favourite radio program was Margaret Throsby's show on 2BL, in the early/mid-'70s. I'm not ashamed to admit she had the most beguiling voice I'd ever heard on radio. While work and travel often took me out of radio range, it was something never to be missed when back in Sydney.' 'Does all this anti-DEI talk from Trump explain why we've heard so little from Don jnr, Eric and Ivanka lately?' wonders Richard Murnane of Hornsby.
Sydney Morning Herald
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Handy horses use their loaf
'Gosh, Column 8 is bringing out the memories,' says Michael Fletcher of Ulsan, South Korea. 'The ice man delivering blocks of ice to the ice chest (C8) in my grandparents' home in Sans Souci, and the baker's horse-drawn cart, with horse unattended, slowly clopping along while the baker ran from side to side delivering bread. The horse would stop at the crossroad and wait for him to catch up.' 'We, too, had an ice chest,' writes David Morrison of Springwood. 'So if we wanted ice-cream for dessert, we would buy a block of it, packaged in cardboard, at the local milk bar and eat it as soon as possible after getting it home, meaning a few hundred metres on foot. I think I remember generous portions because it all had to go.' Viv Mackenzie of Port Hacking notes: 'An article claiming to prove dogs understand words popped up on my phone. That's old news to any dog owner who knows they can spell at least one word: W-A-L-K.' 'I watched the final of the Stawell Gift, and while many may have been disappointed that neither Gout Gout nor Lachlan Kennedy could overcome the handicaps in their respective semi-finals, who wasn't cheering for the aptly named Dash Muir?' asks George Zivkovic of Northmead. Granny can report that Dash finished a credible 5th, which the more callous members of this readership would call 'second-last'. 'Not everyone remembers Blue Hills (C8) fondly,' asserts Jillian Russell of Northbridge. 'When a possum got stuck in the cavity space in our weatherboard home in Melbourne in 1972, we called Pete the possum man for help. However, before he came, Blue Hills started on the radio and the sound of the theme song drove our possum right up the wall (and out to the roof)! Problem solved.' It wasn't all blue for Peter Buckley of Minnesota, USA, either: 'While many downed tools to listen to Blue Hills, my favourite radio program was Margaret Throsby's show on 2BL, in the early/mid-'70s. I'm not ashamed to admit she had the most beguiling voice I'd ever heard on radio. While work and travel often took me out of radio range, it was something never to be missed when back in Sydney.' 'Does all this anti-DEI talk from Trump explain why we've heard so little from Don jnr, Eric and Ivanka lately?' wonders Richard Murnane of Hornsby.
