The NATO phonetic alphabet is a way of using words to replace letters . Although it is called a `` phonetic alphabet '' because it is used so no one gets confused when saying letters , it does not have the same reasons as the International Phonetic Alphabet or other phonetic alphabets . The NATO phonetic alphabet , also called the ICAO phonetic alphabet , ITU phonetic alphabet , NATO spelling alphabet , ICAO spelling alphabet or the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet , is the most widely used spelling alphabet .