With military operations conducted across the globe, the military clarifies time further by appending the time zone with a letter of the NATO phonetic alphabet.
The way this works is the military divided the world into 24 time zones and assigned a letter of the phonetic alphabet to each time zone. The military uses Coordinated Universal Time or Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) and refers to UTC+00:00 as Zulu (Z).
For example, calling the time in Greenwich, England (UTC+00:00), would look similar to 1500Z and be spoken as “fifteen hundred Zulu.”
View the military time zones and corresponding phonetic terms in the chart below.
Military Time Zones Chart
| Zone Letter | Zone Name | Time Offset | Major City |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Alpha | UTC+01:00 | Paris, France |
| B | Bravo | UTC+02:00 | Athens, Greece |
| C | Charlie | UTC+03:00 | Moscow, Russia |
| D | Delta | UTC+04:00 | Kabul, Afghanistan |
| E | Echo | UTC+05:00 | New Delhi, India |
| F | Foxtrot | UTC+06:00 | Dhanka, Bangladesh |
| G | Golf | UTC+07:00 | Bangkok, Thailand |
| H | Hotel | UTC+08:00 | Beijing, China |
| I | India | UTC+09:00 | Tokyo, Japan |
| J | Juliet | Local Time | Local Time Zone |
| K | Kilo | UTC+10:00 | Sydney, Australia |
| L | Lima | UTC+11:00 | Honiara, Solomon Islands |
| M | Mike | UTC+12:00 | Wellington, New Zealand |
| N | November | UTC-01:00 | Azores, Portugal |
| O | Oscar | UTC-02:00 | Godthab, Greenland |
| P | Papa | UTC-03:00 | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Q | Quebec | UTC-04:00 | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| R | Romeo | UTC-05:00 | New York, NY (United States) |
| S | Sierra | UTC-06:00 | Dallas, TX (United States) |
| T | Tango | UTC-07:00 | Denver, CO (United States) |
| U | Uniform | UTC-08:00 | Los Angeles, CA (United States) |
| V | Victor | UTC-09:00 | Juneau, AK (United States) |
| W | Whiskey | UTC-10:00 | Honolulu, HI (United States) |
| X | X-Ray | UTC-11:00 | Nome, AK (United States) |
| Y | Yankee | UTC-12:00 | Suva, Fiji |
| Z | Zulu | UTC+00:00 | Greenwich, England |
Other Important Notes About Military Time Zones
- The time zones from the United States are R – X (Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey and X-Ray).
- The 12 time zones West of the Zulu time zone (Greenwich Mean Time), starting from Zulu and ending at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, are November through Yankee.
- The 12 time zones East of the Zulu time zone (GMT), starting from Zulu and ending at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, are Alpha through Mike.
- Mike and Yankee zones are the same time but a day apart, on either side of the International Date Line.
To convert standard time to military time, utilize our military time converter here.
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