The "Verey" flare pistol is standard equipment on the bridge of every RN and RFA ship. It is also standard equipment in the cockpit of RN helicopters. The "bullet" thingy is about 1" in diameter and around 3" long. They come in 3 fetching colours....White, Green and Red.
They also come neatly packaged in nice little tins that hold 5 (I think) of the little sods. When at sea the pistol and a tin of each colour flare is just kept in an accessible box, ready to hand if need arises. In most cases it is used when either the ship or the aircraft has a radio failure or some other emergency. A back-up of last resort. And vital...even though not used very often. Sometimes they are used to give "close-in" ship-borne weapons a sort of target (although hand fired flares are more commonly used). It would be an act of really stupid beurocracy to ban this bit of kit. It is there to save lives, not terminate them. Cheers. BY.