Military Alphabet: NATO Phonetic Alphabet Chart A to Z

Short answer: The military alphabet is the NATO phonetic alphabet: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee and Zulu. Each code word stands for one letter so that names, grid references and call signs survive a noisy radio. NATO made it effective on March 1, 1956. Civil aviation uses the same 26 words under the ICAO name.

Last updated: October 28, 2026

Key facts

26 code words, one for each letter, from Alfa to Zulu.
In effect for NATO since March 1, 1956.
The same list is the ICAO alphabet used by pilots and air traffic control.
Alfa and Juliett are spelled that way on purpose.
Numbers have radio pronunciations too, such as "niner" for 9.

The military alphabet chart

The pronunciations below come from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aeronautical Information Manual, section 4-2-7. Capital letters show the stressed syllables.

Letter	Code word	Say it	Letter	Code word	Say it
A	Alfa	AL-FAH	N	November	NO-VEM-BER
B	Bravo	BRAH-VOH	O	Oscar	OSS-CAH
C	Charlie	CHAR-LEE or SHAR-LEE	P	Papa	PAH-PAH
D	Delta	DELL-TAH	Q	Quebec	KEH-BECK
E	Echo	ECK-OH	R	Romeo	ROW-ME-OH
F	Foxtrot	FOKS-TROT	S	Sierra	SEE-AIR-RAH
G	Golf	GOLF	T	Tango	TANG-GO
H	Hotel	HOH-TEL	U	Uniform	YOU-NEE-FORM or OO-NEE-FORM
I	India	IN-DEE-AH	V	Victor	VIK-TAH
J	Juliett	JEW-LEE-ETT	W	Whiskey	WISS-KEY
K	Kilo	KEY-LOH	X	X-ray	ECKS-RAY
L	Lima	LEE-MAH	Y	Yankee	YANG-KEY
M	Mike	MIKE	Z	Zulu	ZOO-LOO

How numbers are said on the radio

The same FAA table changes a few numbers so that they cannot be confused with each other or with English words. “Five” and “nine” sound alike over a weak signal, so nine gets an extra syllable.

Number	Say it	Number	Say it
0	ZEE-RO	5	FIFE
1	WUN	6	SIX
2	TOO	7	SEV-EN
3	TREE	8	AIT
4	FOW-ER	9	NIN-ER

Digits are normally spoken one at a time. A call sign such as “Marine 4 Charlie 36,” which appears among the FAA’s examples, is read as “Marine Fow-er Charlie Tree Six.”

Why the military uses a phonetic alphabet

Radio and phone links drop syllables. Letters such as B, D, E, P, T and V sound nearly identical when a signal is weak or a helicopter is overhead. A code word adds enough sound that the listener can recover the letter even if half of it is lost.

That matters most for things that must be exact: map grid references, aircraft tail numbers, unit call signs and the spelling of names. A single wrong letter in a grid reference can send artillery or a medical evacuation helicopter to the wrong place.

Army cavalry troopers use radio communications during an exercise in Finland — U.S. Army troopers use radio communications during Karelian Lock 23 in Finland. Photo: Spc. Jacob Nunnenkamp, U.S. Army. Public domain, via. Wikimedia Commons.

A short history: from Able Baker to Alfa Bravo

NATO’s history of the phonetic alphabet traces several earlier versions:

Year	Alphabet	What changed
1927 and 1932	International Telecommunication Union lists	First internationally recognized list, mostly built on city and country names
1941	Joint Army/Navy “Able Baker” alphabet	Adopted across all U.S. military branches; the Royal Air Force followed two years later
1951	International Air Transport Association alphabet	Mixed English, French and Spanish sounds; civil aviation only
1956	NATO phonetic alphabet	Effective in NATO on March 1, 1956; the version still in use

The 1951 civil list used words such as Coca, Metro, Nectar, Union and eXtra. NATO’s review, led by the United Kingdom and the United States, proposed changing those five. The longest argument was over the letter N, where “Nectar” competed with “November.” The International Civil Aviation Organization approved the final list with November, which is why the military and airline versions are identical today. Every NATO member country uses the same 26 words.

Spelling quirks: Alfa and Juliett

Two words look misspelled to English speakers. Both spellings, “Alfa” and “Juliett,” already appeared in the 1951 civil aviation list, which was built from sounds common to English, French and Spanish. NATO kept them when it replaced only five words. A speaker who reads “Alfa” cannot mistake the opening sound, and the doubled t in “Juliett” signals that the final letter is spoken. Neither spelling changes how an English speaker says the word.

Which words survived from Able Baker?

Only four words carried over from the 1941 U.S. list to the 1956 NATO list: Charlie, Mike, Victor and X-ray. Everything else changed. Dog became Delta, Easy became Echo, George became Golf and Sugar became Sierra. Older veterans of the Second World War and Korea learned the Able Baker words, which is why they sometimes appear in memoirs and films set in those wars.

How to spell a word with the alphabet

Spelling with the alphabet is simple: say one code word per letter, with a short pause between letters. Here are three examples:

Word or code	Spoken as
NAVY	November Alfa Victor Yankee
Grid 38S MB 4512	Tree Ait Sierra Mike Bravo Fow-er Fife Wun Too
Tail number N125GW	November Wun Too Fife Golf Whiskey

The FAA manual tells pilots to use the alphabet when identifying their aircraft on first contact with air traffic control. It also advises using it for single letters and for difficult words when conditions are poor.

The ITU later adopted the NATO list as well, which made it the standard alphabet for military, civilian and amateur radio. NATO’s own page notes that each letter also has a matching Morse code, signal flag and semaphore position.

Military and aviation messages use the 24-hour clock, and times are often written in Coordinated Universal Time. The FAA’s air traffic control order says “the term ‘Zulu’ may be used to denote UTC.” A time of 1400Z therefore means 14:00 UTC, which is 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Frequently asked questions

What is the military alphabet?

It is the NATO phonetic alphabet, a list of 26 code words from Alfa to Zulu, one per letter. It is used to spell out letters clearly over radio and telephone links.

Is the NATO alphabet the same as the military alphabet?

Yes. The U.S. military uses the NATO phonetic alphabet. Pilots and air traffic controllers use the same list, which the International Civil Aviation Organization calls the ICAO alphabet.

Why is it spelled Alfa and not Alpha?

“Alfa” was already the spelling in the 1951 civil aviation list, which was designed around sounds shared by English, French and Spanish. NATO kept it in 1956. The spoken word is the same either way.

When did the military start using Alfa, Bravo, Charlie?

NATO made the current alphabet effective on March 1, 1956. Before that, U.S. forces used the “Able Baker” alphabet, adopted across the branches in 1941.

Why do pilots and soldiers say “niner”?

The FAA pronunciation table lists nine as “NIN-ER.” The extra syllable keeps it from being confused with “five” when a radio signal is weak.

What does Zulu mean in military time?

Zulu means Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). A time written as 0900Z is 9 a.m. UTC, which must be converted to local time.

This article was written by Peter with AI assistance and checked against the sources linked. See our AI use disclosure.

Sources

Additional sources

FAA: Pilot/Controller Glossary