Standard Military Date/Time Format?

D

darpa999

New Member
Hi Folks,

What would be the standard military date/time format used in combat and in military aviation?

Would it be something like this below?

DDHHMMZ DEC 10

Thanks in advance!
 
darpa999 said:
Hi Folks,

What would be the standard military date/time format used in combat and in military aviation?

Would it be something like this below?

DDHHMMZ DEC 10

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

I believe the standard military time is usually the 24 hour clock, so you would say 0600 for 6am and 1800 for 6pm.

Date is alot trickier for me. Simply because of this, in America you do the month before the date and in Britain we do the date before the month. (This can get really confusing for me sometimes). As far as I know the British military still put the date before the month so I don't think there is a standard date format used by the military. Though I may be incorrect.
 
I dont know myself, but I do know the time formats. That is no issue for me.

But I thought this was the Standard date and time format below.

DDHHMMZ JAN 11
 
In military messages and communications (e.g. on maps showing troop movements) the format is DDHHMMZ YY, so for instance, "011545Z JAN 11" represents 15:45 Zulu time on Saturday the 1th of January, 2011
 
011815Z JAN 11

And would there be a space between the time and the month and space between the month and the year like shown above?

Thanks.
 
Thanks!!!!

No, actually its not a pain in the butt. I wish they used this format in normal civilian duties as well.

As a matter of fact, I WILL NOT purchase a clock or a watch that has no 24 hour format....JUST WONT....

Now, is the format (as we discussed) is also used in military aviation such as the US Air Force as well, or only in combat related messages or documents?
 
24-hour is easy; it's making people understand the date format that's trickier.

When you say military aviation, do you mean radio communications, briefings, or what exactly?
 
Yes, I mean in flight plans and for Estimated Time of Arrivals to a specific waypoint.

But for combat mission information, you use the other format which would be DDHHMMZ JAN 11. Am I correct?
 
I won't speak to combat mission information. But even for lots of publicly-released documents, we use that format. Example here (NAVADMIN 191/08). It's common in message traffic for all services.
 
date-time group (DTG)
(DOD) The date and time, expressed in digits and time zone suffix, at which the message was prepared for transmission. (Expressed as six digits followed by the time zone suffix; first pair of digits denotes the date, second pair the hours, third pair the minutes, followed by a three-letter month abbreviation and two-digit year abbreviation.) Also called DTG.

http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary/data/d/3608.html


:smil:
 
NATO has the "Z" not as obligatory, there it would be (for the time and place - Spain - I write from: Date-HHMM-Zone-Month-Year):

042221Ajan11 (ALPHA denominating Spanish Winter Time Zone)

or: 042221Jjan11 (JULIET denominating "local" time)

For international ops this would be transferred to UTC and then look:

042121Zjan11 (ZULU being UTC)

No breaks or other signs to interrupt.

See: NATO glossary of terms and definitions AAP-6 (2006) S. 2-D-1, pg. 71

Rattler
 
Last edited:
Zulu time

c/Commander said:
I won't speak to combat mission information. But even for lots of publicly-released documents, we use that format. Example here (NAVADMIN 191/08). It's common in message traffic for all services.
Click to expand...

I did not see it mentioned but a DTG for the military is always Zulu time or more commonly known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or UTC. By using a single time standard it prevents confusion when trying to figure out when someone sent a message. If the Pentagon sends something 1600 DC time to CinCPac and it is received based on Hawaii time you now have to figure out your difference in time. Toss in multiple messages on the same subject from other commands just adds to the confusion of who said what and when.

When handling thousands of classified messages each day at a major headquarters anything that reduces confusion can be a blessing. :salute2:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top