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How are the different colored lenses on military flashlights used?

As everybody has pretty much stated, Red helps with night vision, not night vision goggles, but YOUR night vision... However, you really cant use it for reading a map as all of the topo lines are usually written in red.

The maps used in the US military will state "red-light readable" on them. The lines that would otherwise be red are usually sort of a red-brown on those maps, allowing you to use a red light to view them. Some 'tactical' lights have IR LEDs built into them, for enhancing your field of vision while wearing a night vision device.

However, most of the time products that use the wording 'tactical' on the package are just trying to get civilians to buy it. Things meant to be tactical are often not labeled as such.
 
I've seen blue,red,green,amber and clear lenses on the flashlights but I don't know why you would use the other ones

Pre-electronic chart days, I used the amber lens when plotting fixes / checking nav charts on the bridge at night. When maintaining night vision, amber allows you to see all the lines, writing and icons on the Nav chart.

Cheers,
 
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