I'm sure there is some confusion here, what you describe is semi true but only in relation to the anti-collision beacon, during ground operation the beacon is red but once airborne it is switched to white (mostly automatically), the navigation lights referred to in this case are the red and green wingtip lights for port/starboard, they are not strobe lights and only in some military aircraft are they set to a pulsing light, but this is not a strobe effect but rather a cycling from on to off.
I am a commercial pilot and flying instructor, hopefully I haven't forgotten any of this stuff.