Military Time

Civilian time uses the numbers 1 to 12 to identify each of the 24 hours in a day. In military time, the hours are numbered from 00 to 24. Regular and military time both use minutes and seconds in exactly the same way. (For example 1:05PM would be 1305 hours.) When converting from regular to military time and vice versa, the minutes and seconds do not change. Midnight is written as 2400 or 0000.

Military Time Zones
ZULU TIME – GREENWICH MEAN TIME (GMT) – UNIVERSAL TIME (UT)

For the U.S. Military, operations are conducted around the world in many different time zones. Often, single and joint operations are conducted across different time zones.

For example, an operation in Iraq may be planned and directed in Florida, with aircraft launched from Italy and the Persian Gulf. Because of this, the military uses Zulu Time as a base reference, and the phonetic alphabet to designate other military time zones. (Zulu Time is also known as Greenwich Mean Time and Universal Time.) Zulu Time is the time in Greenwich, England. The chart below shows Zulu Time in relation to other military time zones.

For example, if it were 1100 hours Zulu Time, then in New York City it would be 0600 hours Romeo Time (1100 – 5 = 0600). In Moscow it would be 1400 hours Charlie Time (1100 + 3 = 1400).