Military-Nautical Time

Military Time Conversion Charts

The fundamental means of measuring time is the rotation of the earth. The ultimate standard by which all clocks are regulated is furnished from observation of the stars. The primary unit of time is the "mean solar day". A mean solar day is the average of the "true solar day", which vary slightly in lengh. There are four times a year the mean and true solar days are equal, by contrast there are also days which time could vary as much as 16 or more minutes. The difference between a mean solar time and true solar time is called the "equation of time".

Every meridian has its own mean solar time. In order to avoid continual changing of time as one travels east or west standard time zones are introduced. Each time zone is 15 degrees of longitude in width. The difference between adjoining zones is one hour.

Military to Civilian Time Conversion Chart
Military Time Civilian Time Military Time Civilian Time
0000 12 AM 1200 12 PM
0100 1 AM 1300 1 PM
0200 2 AM 1400 2 PM
0300 3 AM 1500 3 PM
0400 4 AM 1600 4 PM
0500 5 AM 1700 5 PM
0600 6 AM 1800 6 PM
0700 7 AM 1900 7 PM
0800 8 AM 2000 8 PM
0900 9 AM 2100 9 PM
1000 10 AM 2200 10 PM
1100 11 AM 2300 11 PM

Nautical time zones are used by the military to ensure a standardization of time for the forces. Standard military orders would be delivered in Zulu time. Zulu time is the same as "Greenwich Mean Time" or GMT. Depending on the ship or units location on the planet will determine the amount of offset required. An example would be if orders were to launch a mission at 1000 Zulu and your ship was located near Tokyo in the "India" time zone you would add nine hours to 1000 and know your time to launch was 1900 India.

Nautical-Military Time Zones
ZoneTime OffsetMajor City
Alpha GMT +1 Paris, France
BravoGMT +2Athens, Greece
CharlieGMT +3Moscow, Russia
DeltaGMT +4Kabul, Afghanistan
EchoGMT +5New Delhi, India
FoxtrotGMT +6Dhanka, Bangladesh
GolfGMT +7Bangkok, Thailand
HotelGMT +8Beijing, China
IndiaGMT +9Tokyo, Japan
KiloGMT +10Brisbane, Australia
LimaGMT +11Sydney, Australia
MikeGMT +12Wellington, New Zealand
NovemberGMT -1Azores
OscarGMT -2Godthab, Greenland
PapaGMT -3Buenos Aires, Argentina
QuebecGMT -4Halifax, Nova Scotia
RomeoGMT -5New York, NY United States
SierraGMT -6Dallas, TX United States
TangoGMT -7Denver, CO United States
Uniform GMT -8Los Angeles, CA Unitied States
VictorGMT -9Juneau, AK United States
WhiskeyGMT -10Honolulu, HI United States
X-RayGMT -11Nome, AK United States
YankeeGMT -12Suva, Fiji
ZuluGMTGreenwich
©2008 NavyCS
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