Question is, is the stupidity/ignorance of the general public the main driver for the complete paranoia of some in the Royal Navy or is there something much deeper that drives their love of tin foil hats and persecution complex
The answer is an element of both. Firstly lets address public stupidity/ignorance.
Most of the work the RN does is out at sea over the horizon beyond the view of the public. It is fairly unglamorous work but essential none the less, but doesn't make any headlines unless the matelots have been taking drugs or fighting and wrecking the local town or getting captured by Iranians etc.
We now only have three main naval bases and two air stations (most of which are biased to the South and West of England) and unless you live near these you won't have much exposure to the RN. The RN has always been historically poor at
PR and has only just woken up to this fact in the past few years.
AFAIK the only Media Ops people we have are RNR or Civvy contractors.
Secondly, there is something much deeper that drives the RN persecution complex.
Historically when the RAF took control of aviation from the Admiralty, it wasn't long before maritime aviation was neglected and the Admiralty had no control over it. They then introduced the title of the Fleet Air Arm of the RAF in 1924 in an effort to re-establish some control over maritime aviation, however with the war looming the Admiralty took control of the Naval Air Branch in 1937 later to be renamed the Fleet Air Arm. Then later the 60's and 70's after the cancellation of CVA-01, the carriers and along with it FW aviation. We were lucky to be able to retain some FW capability with Sea Harrier.
So as you can see we have historical reasons to be worried about the early withdrawal of Harrier. I really don't believe that the RAF would be interested in looking after maritime aviation if the FAA no longer operated FW. There are a lot of other issues already touched on in terms of experience and force regeneration if we had a gap in FW activity between Harrier and Dave B.
The real answer is that we need the FAA, AAC and RAF as we all have specialist knowledge in different fields that we bring to the party. If the FAA or AAC were consumed by the RAF I feel that that RN and Army would not get the specialist services that the FAA and AAC provide their parent services. Disbanding the RAF would not work either as by the same token those at the top of the RN and Army who are not aviators don't really understand aviation and how to utilise it properly. Therefore the Government need to stop f**king around and start funding us properly if they want UK PLC to remain on the world stage as a major player, or we drastically reduce in size, become a small defence force capable of policing our own borders and not much else.
The Defence Chiefs also need to stop fighting each other, grow some balls and stand up to Comrade Brown and his cronies and demand the kit we need instead of tearing each other apart over the scraps (which I suspect the certain members of the Government just love).
The last time I checked I was British, as are most of you on the forum. I signed up to fight for Queen and Country (as well as to fly some great hardware) as I am sure most of you did. That means fighting alongside my brethren in the RN/RM, Army and RAF to protect the interests of the UK.