What Is the NATO Phonetic Alphabet?
The NATO phonetic alphabet (officially the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet) assigns a code word to each letter A–Z. Instead of saying "B as in boy", operators say "Bravo", a word that holds up much better over a noisy radio channel.
NATO adopted the current version in 1956. It's used by militaries, civilian aviation, maritime services, amateur radio operators, and emergency dispatchers worldwide.
What Is the NATO Phonetic Alphabet Translator?
This tool converts English text to NATO phonetic words and back. Type a word in the English Text box to see the NATO spelling, or type NATO words in the Military Alphabet box to decode them to text.
How to Use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet Translator
- Type or paste text in the English Text box. Each letter becomes its NATO word in the Military Alphabet box. Words are separated by
/. - To decode, type NATO words (e.g. "Sierra Oscar Sierra") in the Military Alphabet box.
- Click the clipboard icon to copy either box.
- Click the eraser to clear both boxes.
NATO Phonetic Alphabet and Morse Code
Both systems were built to solve the same problem: making radio communications reliable. Trained operators often know both. The table below shows the NATO word alongside the Morse code for every letter and number.
You can use the Morse code translator to convert text to Morse, and this page to convert the same text to NATO words.