The navigation lighting device for an aircraft, in particular a military aircraft and preferably a fighter aircraft is provided with several navigation light units (22, 24, 26) with navigation lights (48, 50, 52), a power supply unit (28) for the navigation light units (22, 24, 26), and a central actuation unit (32) for the actuation of the navigation light units (22, 24, 26) in each one of several modes of operation. The navigation light units (22, 24, 26) can be actuated for operation in a mode of operation by the central actuation unit (32) sequentially in a predetermined sequence and thus with a time offset. Each navigation light unit (22, 24, 26) comprises a control unit (42, 44, 46) connected to the actuation unit (32) for the actuation of its navigation light (48, 50, 52) in the operation mode predetermined by the central actuation unit (32). The control units (42, 44, 46) of the navigation light units (22, 24, 26) comprise time-delay elements (54, 56, 58) for the temporal delay of the actuation of the navigation lights (48, 50, 52) on the receipt of an actuation signal of the central actuation unit (32). The time-delay elements (54, 56, 58) of the control units (42, 44, 46) of the navigation light units (22, 24, 26) are set in such a manner that the navigation lights (48, 50, 52) of all the navigation light units (22, 24, 26) can be actuated simultaneously by their control units (42, 44, 46) despite a temporally offset receipt of the actuation signals of the central actuation unit (32).