What Does 'Roger' Mean In Military Aviation And Why Do Pilots Say It?

If you've ever seen shows with military pilots, you've likely heard them saying "Roger" a few times when talking to air traffic control, fellow pilots, and other people on the radio. But what does it mean? According to flight school BAA Training, "Roger" means that the pilot received and understood the message sent over the radio.

So, if you're a pilot, and air traffic control (ATC) says that a plane is flying above you, you would acknowledge you understand on the radio with "Roger." This tells ATC that you heard them and that you've taken the information into consideration. Aside from common courtesy, it also tells ATC of your receipt, giving them a sense of your situational awareness. This helps prevent confusion, which is crucial in avoiding accidents. So, whether you're flying one of the top fighter jets in the world or are still on your way to earning your wings, you should be able to understand aviation English.

However, one of the things that movies often get wrong with aviation is that "Roger" isn't always the correct term when responding over the radio. Here, we'll explore when you should use "Roger" when you're talking to ATC (or anyone else) on the radio.

"Roger" is used when you're given useful information that you don't need to act on, like the earlier example we explained. On the other hand, if you're given a set of instructions to follow, like when ATC tells you to descend to a particular altitude, the correct response is 'Wilco', which means "will comply." This tells ATC that you've received the given commands and that you will act immediately. Finally, another standard phrase used by pilots is "Affirm" — pronounced as "AY-firm" — which means yes. Note that this isn't "affirmative," which is more commonly used in everyday English.

So, here's an example of how these three often interchanged words is used. If ATC tells you that you have crossing traffic ahead, you should respond with "Roger, Romeo Golf," meaning that you received the warning and that you understand that there's an aircraft crossing ahead. But if they ask if you have traffic in sight, you should answer with "Affirm, traffic in sight," if you see the other aircraft. However, if you do not spot it, you should say, "Negative."

Finally, if ATC tells you to descend to 3,000 feet for traffic avoidance, you should respond with "Wilco, descending 3,000 feet." This tells ATC that you've received the message and that you're executing the instruction immediately. So, these are the proper uses of "Roger," "Affirm," and "Wilco."  You should also note that all pilot responses always include the tail number of your plane, which tells the ATC that which aircraft in their scope is responding.

If you haven't gone through flight training, you might be wondering why pilots have to learn aviation English and use these standard phrases. The reason is to ensure that everyone can understand each other and avoid confusion between ATC, the pilots flying a plane, and other pilots in the vicinity. Miscommunication has caused crashes throughout history, including the deadliest one in history — the Tenerife Airport Disaster in 1977.

The accident happened when two Boeing 747 jumbo jets, which can carry a lot of cargo and passengers, collided on the runway of this small airport, killing 583 people. Although multiple factors led to this crash, one of the reasons was the use of non-standard phrasing. The pilot of one of the aircraft involved assumed that he was cleared for take-off even though when ATC hadn't said so yet. Because of this, his plane collided with another that was still on the runway.

Some of the recommendations by the investigating board after this accident were the use of "standard, concise, and unequivocal aeronautical language" and to "avoid the word 'take-off' in the ATC clearance" so that pilots do not mistake it for an actual take-off clearance. That's why it's crucial for pilots to always use "Roger," "Affirm," and "Wilco" when communicating and avoid confusion that could lead to disaster.

Although "Roger" is the standard response when receiving information, you might ask why pilots don't just use "received." This started with the beginning of aviation through the 1910s, when radio technology wasn't as advanced. Back then, pilots had a radio operator on board to communicate with the ground, and they needed to have that because communication was through morse code.

It would be difficult for a pilot to listen to the dots and dashes of morse code use and then translate it. And even though some planes had a dedicated radio operator, it still took a long time to transmit messages as morse code transmits messages by letter.

So, to make communication faster, radio operators used single-letter substitutes for common words, with the letter "R" to indicate receipt of a message. When voice communications from aircraft were introduced, these single-letter substitutes remained in use. However, since some letters sound similar to other letters and even words, pilots used phonetic alphabets (or words that represent a letter) instead.

The phonetic alphabet for the letter "R" today is 'Romeo', which was introduced as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA) and was adopted by NATO as its standard in 1956. But before this adoption, "Roger" stood for the letter "R." Because of that, "Roger" stuck and is still in use today for received and understood.