(Alpha for A, Bravo for B, etc.), so that critical combinations of letters and numbers can be spoken and understood by those who receive and transmit voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of their native language. This is especially important in traffic control, when people may be in danger due to a distorted understanding of the transmitted information.

International status

After the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) developed the phonetic alphabet in 1956, it has been adopted by many other international and national organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), (ANSI) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). It was a development of the much older International Code of Signals (INTERCO), which originally included visual signals with flags or flashing lights, sound signals with a whistle, siren, bell, and one-, two-, and three-letter codes for many phrases. The same code word alphabet is used in all departments, but each agency chooses one of two sets of numeric word codes. NATO uses normal English words for digits (zero, one, with some alternative pronunciations), while IMO provides for compound words (Nadazero, Unaone, Bissotwo...). In practice, they are used very rarely, as they can lead to confusion when communicating between speakers of different languages.

Most of the words are recognizable by native English speakers, because English must be used for communication between aircraft and control towers whenever representatives of two different countries interact, regardless of their native languages. But this is only necessary at the international level, and on domestic lines, if both sides of the radio conversation represent the same country, the phonetic alphabet of that country can be used.

Most versions of the alphabet use only two non-English spellings: Alfa and Juliett. Alpha spelled with f like in most European languages. English and French spelling alpha not pronounced properly by speakers of some other languages, who may not know what ph should be pronounced like f. Juliet spelled with tt for users of French, because otherwise they may consider that a single letter t not pronounced at the end of a word. The English version of the alphabet, like the ANSI version or the version used by the British Armed Forces and the emergency services, may use Standard English orthography in one or both cases.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The pronunciation of the codes of letters of the alphabet and numbers depends on the language habits of the speaker. To address differences in pronunciation, ICAO has developed posters illustrating the desired pronunciation. However, there are differences in pronunciation between ICAO and non-ICAO versions, and even ICAO has published conflicting standards. In addition, although all alphabetic letter codes are English words, they have deviations from the general rules of English pronunciation. Only 11 codes out of 26: bravo, echo, hotel, Juliet(t), kilo, Mike, papa, Quebec, Romeo, whiskey and Zulu are given according to the rules of English pronunciation (although often not the same as English pronunciation), suggesting that the transcription need not be exact.

Letters

№	Letter	Codeword	Translation of the code word (with alt translation links)	Pronunciation
				Transcription (with sound references)			A variant of (radio) dictation of a letter (another way of pronouncing the code word)
				IFA	In Russian	English	ICAO	US Army	ITU
1)		Alpha(ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha(ANSI, FAA)	alpha (1st letter of the Greek alphabet), the beginning, the main thing among a number of objects	ˈælfɑ	alpha	[ˈælfə]	AL FAH	AL fah	AL FAH
2)		Bravo	bravo (excellent, excellent - exclamation of approval)	ˈbrɑːˈvo	Bravo	[ˈbrɑːvəʊ]	BRAH VOH	BRAH voh	BRAH VOH
3)		Charlie	Charlie's name	ˈtʃɑːli or ˈʃɑːli	Charlie		CHAR LEE	CHAR lee	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE
4)		Delta	delta (4th letter of the Greek alphabet)	ˈdeltɑ	delta	[ˈdeltə]	DELL TAH	DEL tah	DELL TAH
5)		echo	echo	ˈeko	eco		ECK Oh	ekk oh	ECK Oh
6)		foxtrot	foxtrot	ˈfɔkstrɔt	foxtrot		FOKS TROT	FOKS trot	FOKS TROT
7)		Golf	golf	ɡʌlf [sic]	golf		GOLF	Golf	GOLF
8)		Hotel	hotel	hotel	hotel		HOH TELL	HO tell	HOH TELL
9)		India	India	ˈindiˑɑ	india		IN DEEAH	IN dee ah	IN DEEAH
10)		Juliet(ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet(ANSI, FAA)	name Juliet	ˈdʒuːliˑˈet	juliet		JEW LEE ETT	JEW leeet	JEW LEE ETT
11)		Kilo	prefix "kilo"	ˈkiːlo	kilo		key LOH	KEY loh	key LOH
12)		Lima	Lima	ˈliːmɑ	Lima		LEE MAH	LEE mah	LEE MAH
13)		Mike	name Mike	mɑik	Mike		MIKE	Mike	MIKE
14)		October	November	noˈvembə	november		NO VEM BER	NOH vember	NO VEM BER
15)		Oscar	name Oscar	ˈɔskɑ	Oscar		OSS CAH	OSS car	OSS CAH
16)		Papa	dad	pəˈpɑ	dad		PAH PAH	PAH pah	PAH PAH
17)		Quebec	Quebec	keˈbek	cabek		KEH BECK	keh BECK	KEH BECK
18)		Romeo	Romeo	roːmiˑo	roumio	eu]	ROW MEOH	ROW me oh	ROW MEOH
19)		Sierra	sierra, mackerel	siˈerɑ	siera		SEE AIR AH	see AIR ah	SEE AIR RAH
20)		Tango	tango	ˈtænɡo [sic]	tango		TANG GO	TANG go	TANG GO
21)		Uniform	a uniform	ˈjuːnifɔːm or ˈuːnifɔrm	uniform		YOU NEE FORM	YOU nee form	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM
22)		Victor	name Victor	ˈviktɑ / ˈviktɔ	Victor	["vɪktə] / ["vɪktər]	VIK TAH	VIK ter	VIK TAH
23)		Whiskey	whiskey	wiski	Whiskey	["wɪskɪ]	WISS key	WISS key	WISS key
24)		X-ray, xray	x-ray	eksˈrei	exray	["eksreɪ]	ECK sray [ sic]	EKS-ray	ECKS RAY
25)		Yankees	yankees	ˈjænki / janki	Yankees	[ˈjæŋkɪ]	YAN GKEY[ sic]	YANG-kee	YANG key
26)		Zulu	Zulu	ˈzuːluː	Zulu	[ˈzuːluː]	Zoo LOO	Zoo loo	Zoo LOO

Numbers

Number	Codeword	Pronunciation
	Zero (FAA) Nadazero (ITU, IMO)	ZE-RO (ICAO) , ZE-RO or ZEE-RO (FAA) NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (ITU, IMO)
	One (FAA) Unaone (ITU, IMO)	WUN (ICAO, FAA) OO-NAH-WUN (ITU, IMO)
	Two (FAA) Bissotwo (ITU, IMO)	TOO (ICAO, FAA) BEES-SOH-TOO (ITU, IMO)
	Three (FAA) Terrathree (ITU, IMO)	TREE (ICAO, FAA) TAY-RAH-TREE (ITU, IMO)
	Four (FAA) Kartefour (ITU, IMO)	FOW-ER (ICAO) , FOW ER (FAA) KAR-TAY-FOWER (ITU, IMO)
	Five (FAA) Pantafive (ITU, IMO)	FIFE (ICAO, FAA) PAN-TAH-FIVE (ITU, IMO)
	Six (FAA) Soxisix (ITU, IMO)	SIX (ICAO, FAA) SOK-SEE-SIX (ITU, IMO)
	Seven (FAA) Setteseven (ITU, IMO)	SEV-EN (ICAO) , SEV EN (FAA) SAY-TAY-SEVEN (ITU, IMO)
	Eight (FAA) Oktoeight (ITU, IMO)	AIT (ICAO, FAA) OK-TOH-AIT (ITU, IMO)
	Nine (FAA) Nine or niner (ICAO) Novenine (ITU, IMO)	NIN-ER (ICAO) , NIN ER (FAA) NO-VAY-NINER (ITU, IMO)
	Hundred	HUN dred
	Thousand	TOU SAND
(decimal point)	Decimal (ITU)	DAY-SEE-MAL (ITU)
(grammatical point)	Stop (ITU)	STOP (ITU)

Application

The phonetic alphabet is used to spell the part of messages that contains letters and numbers to avoid confusion because the sounds of many letters are similar to each other, for example, "n" and "m", "b" and "d", etc. e. The likelihood of confusion increases if noise or other disturbances are present. For example, the message: "go to DH98 square" would be transmitted as "go to Delta-Hotel-Niner-Eight square". Using "Delta" instead of "D" avoids confusion between "BH98" and "DH98". The unusual pronunciation of some numbers is deliberately done in order, again, to avoid confusion.

In addition to its traditional use in the military, the alphabet is also used in the civilian industry to avoid such problems when transmitting messages over telephones. For example, it is often used in retail when customers negotiate the details of transactions over the phone, although in this case their internal coding conventions are often used. It is often used by information technology workers to transmit digital codes (often very long) or other specialized information using voice. In addition, most major airlines use the alphabet when communicating internally with passenger identification names, and in some cases when communicating with customers.

Several letter codes and abbreviations using the alphabet code are well known and widely used, such as Bravo Zulu (letter code BZ) for the message "well done" or "well done", Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) (checkpoint in Berlin) and Zulu Time for Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time. During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong guerrillas Việt cộng) were called VC or Victor Charlie. The name "Charlie" has become synonymous with this organization.

Options

Aviation

• At airports that serve many Delta Air Lines flights, such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, "Delta" is replaced with "Data", "Dixie", or "David" to avoid confusion because "Delta" is also the call sign of the airline.

The International Aviation Organization (ICAO) Phonetic Alphabet, also known as the International Radiotelephony Alphabet, or simply the "radio alphabet", is recognized as the most widely used phonetic alphabet in the world and is international. For each letter, a certain code word is assigned in accordance with the alphabet (A - Alfa, B - Bravo, etc.). In such a way that a sequence of letters (and numbers) can be easily pronounced and correctly understood in radio voice communication, regardless of the phonetics of the native language content of the transmitting/receiving party. The ICAO aviation phonetic alphabet is used by many international and national organizations. The pronunciation of the codes of letters of the alphabet and numbers depends on the language pronunciation of the speaker. To address differences in pronunciation, ICAO has developed posters illustrating the desired pronunciation. However, there are differences in pronunciation between ICAO and other organizations' versions. In addition, although all alphabetic letter codes are English words, they have deviations from the general rules of English pronunciation.

Aviation English alphabet

	ICAO	Pronunciation expressed in letters of the Russian alphabet (stressed syllable highlighted)
A	Alpha	al-F
B	Bravo	sconce-in
C	Charlie	charm-whether
D	Delta	del-ta
E	echo	uh-ko
F	Foxtrot	fox-trot
G	Golf	golf
H	Hotel	ho- tel
I	Índia	Ying-di-a
J	Juliet	Joo-li-ette
K	Kilo	ki-lo
L	Lima	whether-ma
M	Mike	Mike
N	November	but- vem-ber
O	Oscar	os-car
P	Papa	pa- pa
Q	Quebec	Que- back
R	Romeo	Ro-mi-o
S	Sierra	sie-ra
T	Tango	tan th
U	Uniform	Yu-no-forms
V	Victor	Vic-tor
W	Whisky	vis-ki
X	X-ray	the ex-ray

The Great Maneuvers began, strictly speaking, with a single visit to the small town of Ocala, Florida. Wayne Dollack lives and works there - the inventor of the technology called the "big game". Back then, in 1998, with our first Maneuvers of 128 people, Wayne's scale and technology seemed unimaginable - almost 1,000 players! Full saturation with radio communications! Coded transmission of orders!
Wayne generously shared his knowledge, especially knowledge on how to organize a non-stop flow of missions. In his performance, it looked like this ...
Two "command posts" were built in the field - two large objects, with defensive walls, towers, stairs, passageways and ... radio cabins, in which batteries and stationary radio stations are located. But the largest station is located not at the headquarters of the parties, but outside the field, at the organizing CP.
Because all mission control is conducted over the air. The pre-designed scenario is broken down into short formalized tasks that indicate who (which platoon is which unit), where (place or landmark), when (game start time for the task), until what time (mission end time) and what (type of task) must commit.
And then everything is simple - the task is transmitted by radio. True, in coded form.
Along with the rules, scenario and introductory, the headquarters of the parties received "code tables", in which two-letter combinations indicated places, times, and numbers - about 150-160 codes in total.

For example, a message
Company A platoon 1 set up listening post at Third Finger Area, hold 1/2 hour
after encoding it will sound like
Delta-Bravo Alpha Delta-Charlie Alpha-Bravo Echo-Mike Charlie-Yankee Bravo-Hotel Foxtrot-Sierra Bravo-Victor Bravo-Zulu Alpha-Lima Alpha-Zulu

Message	Encoding
Company A	Delta-Bravo Alpha
Platoon	Delta Charlie
1	Alpha Bravo
set up	echo mike
listening post	Charlie-Yankee
At	Bravo Hotel
third finger	Foxtrot-Sierra
area	Bravo Victor
hold	Bravo Zulu
1/2	Alpha Lima
Hour	Alpha Zulu

In a more familiar version, instead of transmitting a task via a walkie-talkie, sealed envelopes with mission cards inside are used - initially this was done out of poverty, due to the lack of walkie-talkies, but then it took root.
Despite the apparent complexity, the table of codes is quite easy to remember and any sensible "head of communications" or headquarters signalman three or four hours after the start of the game, and they go to Dollak for 24 hours, the day decodes practically "by ear". Yes, this position is becoming mandatory - at the headquarters, someone must continuously monitor the air in anticipation of new missions. Unlike other members of the headquarters, the signalman is in a "protected room" - the only room in the field headquarters that is completely enclosed by a net, in which you can stay without a mask. Moreover, even if the enemy manages to capture the entire headquarters, they are strictly forbidden to enter the radio room - in order to avoid it.
Of course, all key radio stations (CP, headquarters, main groups) have their own call signs. To control who is in reality in touch and whether some cunning adversary got into the "headquarters" frequency, password request and recall are used, for example, Willie Peter - Six-Nine. Passwords are generated in advance and changed every 3-4 hours for greater durability. If one side or another has doubts about the identity of the interlocutor, a password follows, to which he must answer. Of course, the above scheme is the simplest, you can come up with a more intricate system of authenticity verification, but the question is whether the player in the field will be able to figure out in time what needs to be answered.
Together with the headquarters signalman, the “head of the operations department” also works, who receives messages, puts them on a map and determines what forces can accomplish the task - just like in a real headquarters, where the chief of staff is planning, and the commander is in charge of implementation.

ICAO phonetic alphabet, also known as ITU phonetic alphabet, NATO phonetic alphabet or international radiotelephony phonetic alphabet is the most widely used phonetic alphabet. Often the so-called "phonetic alphabets" are actually spelling alphabets and have no connection with phonetic transcription systems like the "International Phonetic Alphabet". Instead, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet assigns code words acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet ( Alpha for A, Bravo for B, etc.), so that critical combinations of letters and numbers can be spoken and understood by those who receive and transmit voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of their native language. This is especially important in traffic control, when people may be in danger due to a distorted understanding of the transmitted information.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The pronunciation of the codes of letters of the alphabet and numbers depends on the language habits of the speaker. To address differences in pronunciation, ICAO has developed posters illustrating the desired pronunciation. However, there are differences in pronunciation between ICAO and non-ICAO versions, and even ICAO has published conflicting standards. In addition, although all alphabetic letter codes are English words, they have deviations from the general rules of English pronunciation. Only 11 codes out of 26: bravo, echo, hotel, Juliet(t), kilo, Mike, papa, Quebec, Romeo, whiskey and Zulu are given according to the rules of English pronunciation (although often not the same as English pronunciation), suggesting that the transcription need not be exact.

Letters

№	Letter	Codeword	Code word translation(with alt translation links)	Pronunciation
				Transcription(with audio links)			Variant (radio-)dictation letter(another way to pronounce the code word)
				IFA	In Russian	English	ICAO	US Army	ITU
1)	A	Alpha(ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha(ANSI, FAA)	alpha (1st letter of the Greek alphabet), the beginning, the main thing among a number of objects	ˈælfɑ	alpha	[ˈælfə]	AL FAH	AL fah	AL FAH
2)	B	Bravo	"Bravo"; hitman	ˈbrɑːˈvo	Bravo	[ˈbrɑːvəʊ]	BRAH VOH	BRAH voh	BRAH VOH
3)	C	Charlie	Charlie's name	ˈtʃɑːli or ˈʃɑːli	charlie (charlie)		CHAR LEE	CHAR lee	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE
4)	D	Delta	delta (4th letter of the Greek alphabet)	ˈdeltɑ	delta	[ˈdeltə]	DELL TAH	DEL tah	DELL TAH
5)	E	echo	echo	ˈeko	eco		ECK Oh	ekk oh	ECK Oh
6)	F	foxtrot	foxtrot	ˈfɔkstrɔt	foxtrot		FOKS TROT	FOKS trot	FOKS TROT
7)	G	Golf	golf	ɡʌlf [ sic]	golf		GOLF	Golf	GOLF
8)	H	Hotel	hotel	hotel	hotel		HOH TELL	HO tell	HOH TELL
9)	I	India	India	ˈindiˑɑ	india		IN DEEAH	IN dee ah	IN DEEAH
10)	J	Juliet(ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet(ANSI, FAA)	name Juliet	ˈdʒuːliˑˈet	juliet		JEW LEE ETT	JEW leeet	JEW LEE ETT
11)	K	Kilo	prefix "kilo"	ˈkiːlo	kilo		key LOH	KEY loh	key LOH
12)	L	Lima	Lima	ˈliːmɑ	Lima		LEE MAH	LEE mah	LEE MAH
13)	M	Mike	name Mike	mɑik	Mike		MIKE	Mike	MIKE
14)	N	October	November	noˈvembə	newembe		NO VEM BER	NOH vember	NO VEM BER
15)	O	Oscar	name Oscar	ˈɔskɑ	osk		OSS CAH	OSS car	OSS CAH
16)	P	Papa	dad	pəˈpɑ	dad		PAH PAH	PAH pah	PAH PAH
17)	Q	Quebec	Quebec	keˈbek	cabek		KEH BECK	keh BECK	KEH BECK
18)	R	Romeo	Romeo	roːmiˑo	roumio	eu]	ROW MEOH	ROW me oh	ROW MEOH
19)	S	Sierra	sierra, mackerel	siˈerɑ	siera		SEE AIR AH	see AIR ah	SEE AIR RAH
20)	T	Tango	tango	ˈtænɡo [ sic]	tango		TANG GO	TANG go	TANG GO
21)	U	Uniform	a uniform	ˈjuːnifɔːm or ˈuːnifɔrm	uniform (uniform)		YOU NEE FORM	YOU nee form	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM
22)	V	Victor	name Victor	ˈviktɑ/ ˈviktɔ	victa	[‘vɪktə] / [‘vɪktər]	VIK TAH	VIK ter	VIK TAH
23)	W	Whiskey	whiskey	wiski	Whiskey	[‘wɪskɪ]	WISS key	WISS key	WISS key
24)	X	X-ray, xray	x-ray	eksˈrei	exray	[‘eksreɪ]	ECK sray [ sic]	EKS-ray	ECKS RAY
25)	Y	Yankees	yankees	ˈjænki/ ˈjanki	Yankees	[ˈjæŋkɪ]	YAN GKEY[ sic]	YANG-kee	YANG key
26)	Z	Zulu	Zulu	ˈzuːluː	Zulu	[ˈzuːluː]	Zoo LOO	Zoo loo	Zoo LOO

Numbers

Number	Codeword	Pronunciation
0	Zero (FAA) Nadazero (ITU, IMO)	ZE-RO (ICAO), ZE-RO or ZEE-RO (FAA) NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (ITU, IMO)
1	One (FAA) Unaone (ITU, IMO)	WUN (ICAO, FAA) OO-NAH-WUN (ITU, IMO)
2	Two (FAA) Bissotwo (ITU, IMO)	TOO (ICAO, FAA) BEES-SOH-TOO (ITU, IMO)
3	Three (FAA) Terrathree (ITU, IMO)	TREE (ICAO, FAA) TAY-RAH-TREE (ITU, IMO)
4	Four (FAA) Kartefour (ITU, IMO)	FOW-ER (ICAO), FOW ER (FAA) KAR-TAY-FOWER (ITU, IMO)
5	Five (FAA) Pantafive (ITU, IMO)	FIFE (ICAO, FAA) PAN-TAH-FIVE (ITU, IMO)
6	Six (FAA) Soxisix (ITU, IMO)	SIX (ICAO, FAA) SOK-SEE-SIX (ITU, IMO)
7	Seven (FAA) Setteseven (ITU, IMO)	SEV-EN (ICAO), SEV EN (FAA) SAY-TAY-SEVEN (ITU, IMO)
8	Eight (FAA) Oktoeight (ITU, IMO)	AIT (ICAO, FAA) OK-TOH-AIT (ITU, IMO)
9	Nine (FAA) Nine or niner (ICAO) Novenine (ITU, IMO)	NIN-ER (ICAO), NIN ER (FAA) NO-VAY-NINER (ITU, IMO)
100	Hundred	HUN dred
1000	Thousand	TOU SAND
. (decimal point)	Decimal (ITU)	DAY-SEE-MAL (ITU)
. (grammatical point)	Stop (ITU)	STOP (ITU)