Friday 19 April 2013

Armed Forces Flags (Brazil)

This was very much inspired by a post on the blog of a fellow vexillology fan, Leonardo Piccioni. He made a suggestion for the flag  Joint Staff of Armed Forces (Estado-Maior Conjunto das Forças Armadas or) See Here. I thought I'd go a little further and make flags for the individual armed services. 


 Exército do Brasil (Brazilian Army)

 First is the ceremonial standard of the army. For the one currently used see here. I did little to improve it but what I did do makes a big difference:

I used the army coat of arms, but I only used the shield and motto. I also used a blue, red, blue field as these are the traditional colours of the army, (which I find amusing as they are also the colours of the British Foot Guard regiments.) It also has the ceremonial streamers in the national colours and emblem, which I find charming. 
The non ceremonial flag for the army is below:
The inspiration is the national flag. Unlike the flags of the other armed forces, I didn't use the traditional colours colours, but kept a green field. The reason for this is green is used to represent the army on the joint staff flag. 
Next is the command flags. The flag for commander of the army features the coat of arms and traditional colours see here. My version is below:
It does conform to the same layout, but I decided to use a banner of arms at the hoist rather than the full coat of arms. I also change the colours at the fly to the national colours, as red and blue are already in the banner of arms in the hoist. 
There are two flags for chief of the Office of Commander of the Army, depending on if the officer in that position is a Brigadier General or Major General. See Here. For purposes of simplicity I decided to use one flag regardless of rank:
This has the army flag (non ceremonial) at the hoist and the colours at the fly. 
The rest of the command flags I think work okay and don't need changed, you can see them here.

Marinha do Brasil (Brazilian Navy)

The Brazilian Navy uses the national flag as its ensign, and the Cruzeiro as the Naval Jack. See Here. The flags that I am proposing are either Command Flags and Pennants or for use on shore. For example the cerimonal standard of the Navy. See Here. My proposal is below:
Rather than a silver/grey field I think white is more appropriate. I also added a blue boarder with the stars from the naval jack, and the ceremonial steamers, other than that I have changed very little. 
The non ceremonial flag of the navy is below. This flag would be used on shore bases or in unoffical ways like sporting events etc.  
Inspired by the national flag, it has a white field with a blue diamond with the insignia of the navy. the text could be removed.
The Navy I feel has a lot of rank flags which are very similar and in my opinion very easy to be mistaken. See Here. So here are my alternative proposals for the senior officials:
The flag of Commander of the Navy is white so that it stands out. I took away the star emblem and moved the anchor to the canton.

The Chief of Staff of the Navy is almost exactly the same but with the crossed anchors moved to the canton.
I did the same thing for Commander of Naval Operations. Moved the anchor to the canton.
the Admiralty flag I took away the anchors and simplified the star in the canton by removing the southern cross design. 
The flag for Commander in Chief of the Fleet, is the same as the admiralty but I added an anchor. there is also a flag for patron of the navy but since this seems to be a ceremonial flag I decided not to change it. 
I also simplified the rank flag of flag officers. Some of the flags differ depending on if the officer is in command or not. As the senior rank would be in command I think this is a little pointless. So to keep things simple my flags represent rank only. I also used a star system which is simple but easy to identify in rough weather or combat compared to the current flags.
Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral
Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral
I assume a Commodore would have a single star?
Staying with the navy is the flag of the Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais, (Corps of Naval Fusiliers)  the Brazilian Marine Corps:
 Again I have changed very little from the current flagIn fact what I have changed is really down to personal preference. I moved the star to the canton and the coat of arms to the bottom corner of the fly end.
The rank flags are similar to the naval ones so my alternatives are also similar, but are red to distinguish them as marines.
Commandant-General of the Marine Corps
Vice Admiral commanding a force of Marines
Rear Admiral commanding a force of Marines
Captain commanding a force of Marines
Commander or Lt Commander commanding a force of Marines

Força Aérea Brasileira (Brazilian Air Force)

I was unable to find any ceremonial standard of the Air Force so my design is completely original: 
It features a sky blue field with a dark blue diamond on which is the coat of arms of the air force. Again the inspiration was the national flag. The diamond has a green and gold boarder. 
The non ceremonial flag is based on the Air Force Fin Flash:
It also has a blue diamond but with the Air Force insignia rather than the full coat of arms. 
Like the army the rank flags and flags of senior offices are very good and I wouldn't change. However I would change the flag of Commander of the Air Force:
Similar to the current one but with the aircraft roundel rather than coat of arms symbolising the Air Force.
To see the current rank flags click here .

Please Feel Free to Comment



All proposal  on this page in this post are designed by me


3 comments:

  1. For your curiosity, there isn't, in Brazilian navy, the rank of "commodore". The rank of "counter-admiral" (or, in English-speaking countries, "rear admiral") is the immediate superior of a captain.

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    1. I suspected that but wasn't sure which is why I mentioned it just in-case :L

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