Having been on the 334th a few years ago (as a tame Brit) they were very proud of their heritage as an Eagle Squadron in WW11 and even wore the RAF 71 Squadron patch with pride.
Much as it annoys me with the modern RAF, when asked why they did it the answer is: "because we can!". When I was there we had more F15Es on the base than 11Gp had aircraft plus a tanker wing.
Squirrel, they probably chucked a few concrete 2000lb GBUs at Navy Dare too, again because they can! It really sucks and puts UK power projection in perspective.