A Complete Explainer Of Military Time And Military Time Zones

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Updated January 4, 2023 Fact-Checked Military Time Zones

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 […]

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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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  Written by Veteran.com Team

  The editorial team here at Veteran.com works to help the U.S. military community discover the many military benefits available to them. Our team is supported by our Veteran Review Board and its Standard of Care, which all content on Veteran.com is reviewed to meet.

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