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REPUBLIC OF
SOUTH AFRICA |
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| MILITARY &
NAVAL FLAGS & ENSIGNS,
1994-2003 |
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and its branches have their own service flags that are variants of the South African national flag. All employ the SA national flag as a canton and all except the naval ensign display the relevant service insignia in the lower fly. Field colors are green for the SANDF, dark orange for the SA Army, light blue for the SA Air Force and maroon for the SA Medical Service. (The SAMS is a separate branch that provides medical support to all the other services.) The naval ensign is white with a green St. George-style cross. The SA national flag is used as the naval jack. All the service flags adopted in 1994-1995 were identical to those used previously, except for the substitution of the 1994 national flag for the 1928 national flag in the canton. The previous naval ensign displayed the SA Navy crest in the lower fly; this was deleted from the 1994 ensign but retained in a somewhat different form for the ceremonial naval color. In 2001 new service insignia began to be introduced, and these have now replaced the previous designs, which were carried over from the days of white minority rule. The first flag to carry the new insignia was the 2002-03 Army flag, which seems to have been an interim design with the insignia on a conventional shield. In 2003, a revised Army flag was adopted, featuring the nine-pointed badge that has now become standard for all SA military branch insignia. Other flags were changed at the same time. Naval rank flags are of the British pattern with green rather than red crosses and disks. The air force rank flags used up to 2003 were light blue with the SAAF insignia in the upper hoist. Flag Proportions: All SA military flags and ensigns have 2:3 proportions. Image Added August 2004 Naval Color |
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