The NATO phonetic alphabet — also known as the ICAO alphabet or the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet — is the most standardised spelling alphabet in the world. Used in aviation, maritime, military, emergency services and amateur radio.
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The NATO phonetic alphabet is: Alpha, 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.
The NATO phonetic alphabet was developed in the 1950s by the ICAO (civil aviation) and later adopted by NATO for military communications. It is used in virtually all international radio communications — the 26 code words were specifically chosen to remain recognisable across a poor connection or different languages.
Note that Alpha and Juliett are intentional spellings: Alpha prevents pronunciation as "alfa" from being confused, and Juliett is spelled with double-t so French speakers don’t pronounce the final t silently.
Looking for the Dutch phonetic alphabet (Anton, Bernard, Cornelis)? See the Nederlandse pagina.
The NATO phonetic alphabet replaces each letter with a fixed code word — Alpha for A, Bravo for B, Charlie for C, and so on — so that letters stay unambiguous over a poor connection or across languages. It is also known as the ICAO or international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.
It is the worldwide standard for aviation and maritime communication, and is used every day by the military, emergency services and amateur radio operators.
It is the same alphabet; only the spelling differs by language. English uses Alpha, Dutch uses Alfa (and Juliett keeps its double t in both). The code words for the other letters are identical. See the NAVO page for the Dutch spelling.
The 26 code words were carefully tested in the 1950s so they stay recognisable across multiple languages and are hard to confuse with one another. That is why Juliett is spelled with a double t and Alpha with a ph.
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