Red flag

Red flag may refer to:

Politics

Law

Military

Entertainment

Red flag (politics)

In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, Communism, and left-wing politics; it has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789–99). Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its use by the Paris Commune of 1871. The flags of several communist states, including China, Vietnam and the Soviet Union, are explicitly based on the original red flag. The red flag is also used as a symbol by some democratic socialists and social democrats, for example the Avami National Party of Pakistan, French Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The Labour Party in Britain used it until the late 1980s. It was the inspiration for the socialist anthem, The Red Flag.

History

In the Middle Ages, ships in combat flew a long red streamer, called the Baucans, to signify a fight to the death. In one petition, a group of English sailors asserted that the Crown had no right to a share of the prize money earned from a Norman ship captured in 1293 because it had raised the Baucans. (Raising this streamer may have been a relatively novel practice at this time, since the writers feel the need to explain it.) By the 17th century, the Baucans had evolved into a red flag, or "flag of defiance." It was raised in cities and castles under siege to indicate that they would not surrender. "The red flag is a signal of defiance and battle," according to Chambers Cyclopedia (1727–41).

Red flag (idiom)

The term red flag could mean either a literal flag used for signaling or, as a metaphor, a sign of some particular problem requiring attention.

The earliest citation for "red flag" in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1602 and shows that at that time the flag was used by military forces to indicate that they were preparing for battle.

The earliest citation of "red flag" in the sense of a warning is dated 1777 and refers to a flag warning of flood.

The term and the expression "to raise the red flag" come from various usages of real flags throughout history. The semaphore red flag (or red light) on railways means an immediate stop, while a red flag is frequently flown by armed forces to warn the public of live fire exercises in progress, and is sometimes flown by ships carrying munitions (in this context it is actually the flag for the letter B in the International maritime signal flag alphabet, a red swallow-tailed flag). In many countries a red flag is flown to signify that an outdoor shooting range is in use. The United States Air Force refers to its largest annual exercise as red flag operation. Red flags are used for various signals in team sailing races (see Racing Rules of Sailing). A red flag warning is a signal of high wildfire danger and a red flag on the beach warns of dangerous water conditions (double red flags indicate beach closure). Red flags of various designs indicate dangerous wind and wave conditions for mariners. In auto racing, a red flag indicates a stop to the race due to dangerous conditions.

Exercise Red Flag

Exercise Red Flag is an advanced aerial combat training exercise hosted at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Red Flag – Alaska is held at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, being a successor to the previous COPE THUNDER exercise series in the Western Pacific and Alaska. Since 1975, air crews from the United States Air Force (USAF), United States Navy (USN), United States Marine Corps (USMC), United States Army (USA) and numerous NATO or other allied nations' air forces take part in one of several Red Flag exercises held during the year, each of which is two weeks in duration.

Under the aegis of the United States Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC) at Nellis, the Red Flag exercises, conducted in four to six cycles a year by the 414th Combat Training Squadron (414 CTS) of the 57th Wing (57 WG), are very realistic aerial war games. The purpose is to train pilots and other flight crew members from the U.S., NATO and other allied countries for real air combat situations. This includes the use of "enemy" hardware and live ammunition for bombing exercises within the adjacent Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR).