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Military Time Zones

Military and aviation use single-letter codes for each one-hour UTC offset — Alpha through Mike for east of UTC, November through Yankee for west, and Zulu for UTC itself. The letter Juliet is intentionally skipped: by convention it denotes the observer's local time.

East of UTC (Alpha → Mike)

A
Alpha UTC+1
09:05 B
Bravo UTC+2
10:05 C
Charlie UTC+3
11:05 D
Delta UTC+4
12:05 E
Echo UTC+5
13:05 F
Foxtrot UTC+6
14:05 G
Golf UTC+7
15:05 H
Hotel UTC+8
16:05 I
India UTC+9
17:05 K
Kilo UTC+10
18:05 L
Lima UTC+11
19:05 M
Mike UTC+12
20:05

UTC (Zulu)

Z
Zulu UTC
08:05

West of UTC (November → Yankee)

N
November UTC-1
07:05 O
Oscar UTC-2
06:05 P
Papa UTC-3
05:05 Q
Quebec UTC-4
04:05 R
Romeo UTC-5
03:05 S
Sierra UTC-6
02:05 T
Tango UTC-7
01:05 U
Uniform UTC-8
00:05 V
Victor UTC-9
23:05 W
Whiskey UTC-10
22:05 X
X-ray UTC-11
21:05 Y
Yankee UTC-12
20:05

How NATO phonetic letters map to UTC offsets

Every one-hour UTC offset has a single-letter and phonetic name in the NATO alphabet. East of UTC the letters increase from A at UTC+1 to M at UTC+12. West of UTC they continue from N at UTC−1 to Y at UTC−12. Z is reserved for UTC itself, hence the term "Zulu Time."

These codes are widely used in aviation, maritime, and military communications because they are unambiguous in any spoken language — "0900 Zulu" cannot be confused for any local time anywhere in the world.