Military call sign

One specific call sign used Army wide is DUSTOFF, dating back to the first dedicated Air Ambulance unit in Vietnam.

For example, JAMBO 51 would be assigned to a particular B-52 aircrew of the 5th Bomb Wing, while NODAK 1 would be an F-16 fighter with the North Dakota Air National Guard.

In May 2019, United States Navy announced new procedures for assigning call signs to pilots in training to avoid potentially racist names.

[2] Tactical voice communications ("combat net radio") use a system of call signs of the form letter-digit-digit.

This, together with frequency changes and voice procedure aimed at making every unit sound the same, protects the military against simple traffic analysis and eavesdropping.

There may also be a second controller – either a backup station or a commander who has delegated communication tasks to a signaller but may occasionally wish to speak in person – using the call sign 0A ("zero alpha").

Pre-BATCO systems used a series of appointment titles to identify users and individuals, "Sunray", for instance, referring to the appropriate leader.

Where there is continued usage of appointment titles, they are usually regarded as only giving a low grade of security cover,[14][15][12] with ACP 125 deeming them to be unclassified.