ClockOrbit

Reference

Military time zones

Look up a letter code to see its UTC offset, NATO phonetic name and example zones. Zulu means UTC; London uses Z in standard time and A in summer.

180°W90°W0°90°E180°EYYankee-12XX-ray-11WWhiskey-10VVictor-9UUniform-8TTango-7SSierra-6RRomeo-5QQuebec-4PPapa-3OOscar-2NNovember-1ZZulu0AAlpha+1BBravo+2CCharlie+3DDelta+4EEcho+5FFoxtrot+6GGolf+7HHotel+8IIndia+9KKilo+10LLima+11MMike+12UTCantimeridianJ (Juliet) = observer's local time.Not plotted on this strip.
LetterPhoneticUTC offsetExample zones
ZZuluUTC
  • Reykjavik (no DST)
  • Casablanca (no DST in standard year)
  • London (Oct-Mar, GMT), standard time only

Zulu time is the most-used letter in aviation, the military, and Unix system clocks. Every weather report (METAR/TAF) carries a Z suffix.

AAlphaUTC+01:00
  • Paris (Oct-Mar, CET), standard time only
  • Berlin (Oct-Mar, CET), standard time only
  • Lagos (WAT, no DST)
  • London (Mar-Oct, BST), summer time only
BBravoUTC+02:00
  • Athens (Oct-Mar, EET), standard time only
  • Cairo (EET, no DST in standard year)
  • Johannesburg (SAST, no DST)
  • Paris (Mar-Oct, CEST), summer time only
CCharlieUTC+03:00
  • Moscow (MSK, no DST)
  • Riyadh (AST, no DST)
  • Nairobi (EAT, no DST)
DDeltaUTC+04:00
  • Dubai (GST, no DST)
  • Baku (AZT)
  • Samara (SAMT, no DST)
EEchoUTC+05:00
  • Karachi (PKT, no DST)
  • Tashkent (UZT)
  • Yekaterinburg (YEKT)
FFoxtrotUTC+06:00
  • Dhaka (BST/BDT, no DST)
  • Almaty (ALMT)
  • Omsk (OMST)
GGolfUTC+07:00
  • Bangkok (ICT, no DST)
  • Jakarta (WIB, no DST)
  • Ho Chi Minh City (ICT)
HHotelUTC+08:00
  • Shanghai (CST, no DST)
  • Singapore (SGT)
  • Perth (AWST, no DST)
IIndiaUTC+09:00
  • Tokyo (JST, no DST)
  • Seoul (KST, no DST)
  • Pyongyang (KST since 2018)

The letter I and the phonetic India are unrelated to the Indian Standard Time zone, India observes UTC+05:30, which has no single military letter.

KKiloUTC+10:00
  • Brisbane (AEST, no DST)
  • Port Moresby (PGT)
  • Sydney (Apr-Oct, AEST), standard time only
LLimaUTC+11:00
  • Noumea (NCT)
  • Honiara (SBT)
  • Sydney (Oct-Apr, AEDT), summer time only
MMikeUTC+12:00
  • Suva (FJT)
  • Auckland (Apr-Sep, NZST), standard time only
  • Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (PETT)

M is the eastmost fixed-offset letter. Time zones east of that, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga at +13, fall off the alphabet and have no standard letter.

NNovemberUTC-01:00
  • Ponta Delgada (Oct-Mar, AZOT), standard time only
  • Praia (CVT)
OOscarUTC-02:00
  • King Edward Point (GST)
  • Fernando de Noronha (FNT)
PPapaUTC-03:00
  • Buenos Aires (ART, no DST)
  • Sao Paulo (BRT, no DST since 2019)
  • Montevideo (UYT)
QQuebecUTC-04:00
  • Halifax (Nov-Mar, AST), standard time only
  • Caracas (VET)
  • La Paz (BOT)
  • New York (Mar-Nov, EDT), summer time only
RRomeoUTC-05:00
  • New York (Nov-Mar, EST), standard time only
  • Toronto (Nov-Mar, EST), standard time only
  • Lima (PET, no DST)
  • Bogota (COT, no DST)
SSierraUTC-06:00
  • Chicago (Nov-Mar, CST), standard time only
  • Mexico City (CST, no DST since 2022)
  • San Jose (CST)
TTangoUTC-07:00
  • Denver (Nov-Mar, MST), standard time only
  • Phoenix (MST, no DST)
  • Los Angeles (Mar-Nov, PDT), summer time only
UUniformUTC-08:00
  • Los Angeles (Nov-Mar, PST), standard time only
  • Vancouver (Nov-Mar, PST), standard time only
  • Tijuana (PST), standard time only
VVictorUTC-09:00
  • Anchorage (Nov-Mar, AKST), standard time only
  • Rikitea (GAMT)
WWhiskeyUTC-10:00
  • Honolulu (HST, no DST)
  • Papeete (TAHT)
XX-rayUTC-11:00
  • Pago Pago (SST, no DST)
  • Alofi (NUT)
YYankeeUTC-12:00
  • Baker and Howland Islands (uninhabited US territories)

Y is the westmost military letter. Almost no inhabited zone uses UTC-12, it survives on charts mostly to mark the antimeridian.

JJulietLocalNo fixed offset.

Juliet is not a fixed offset. It tells the reader "the observer's local time, whatever that is." Used in field signals where the writer wants to leave the reader to apply their own zone, and avoided in international communications because it is ambiguous.

Where you actually see these

Military time zone letters live in three places. Aviation METAR and TAF reports end their date-time group with a Z, for example, `301200Z` means the 30th of the month at 12:00 UTC. NATO message signals use the same convention so a one-letter suffix tells the reader exactly which clock the timestamp is anchored to. And ham radio operators still log contacts in UTC and call it Zulu out of habit.

The DST trap

Military letters describe a fixed offset. Many IANA zones span two letters across the year. London sits at Z in winter (GMT) and A in summer (BST). New York sits at R in winter (EST) and Q in summer (EDT). When someone says "we'll meet at 14:00 R" in May, they usually mean 14:00 EDT, but strictly Romeo time is UTC-5, so the meeting is at 15:00 EDT. If clarity matters, name the IANA zone, not the letter.

To convert a wall-clock time between a military letter and a city, try the time zone converter with the matching IANA zone. For a list of every IANA zone with its current offset, see UTC offset globe.

Why the alphabet skips J

J is reserved for "Juliet", which is not a number at all, it means "the observer's local time." The NATO phonetic alphabet uses J for Juliet to keep voice signals unambiguous, and the military time letter system inherits the same letter. So instead of A, B, ..., I, J, K for +1 through +11, the offsets jump from I (+9) straight to K (+10).