Mils (NATO) to Milliradians Conversion

Mils (NATO)

A mil, short for milliradian, is equal to 1/6,400 of a circle. The mil used by the US military and NATO forces is slightly different than the true value of a milliradian, which is equal to 1/6,283 of a circle.

During World War I the US adopted what is now the NATO mil to replace degrees and minutes for use in artillery sights. They opted to round mils to 6,400 per circle for simplicity at the time. Today, the mil is commonly used to measure adjustment of sights and scopes of firearms.

There is rightfully much confusion as a result of the mil adopted by the US military and NATO being slightly different than the milliradian.

A mil is sometimes also referred to as an angular mil. Mils (NATO) can be abbreviated as mil, for example 1 mil can be written as 1 mil.

Milliradians

A milliradian is equal to 1/1,000 of a radian. One degree is equal to 0.0573 milliradians and there are 6,283 milliradians in a full revolution/circle. The milliradian is also a commonly used unit in mathematics.

The milliradian is a multiple of the radian, which is the SI derived unit for angle. In the metric system, "milli" is the prefix for 10^-3. A milliradian is sometimes also referred to as a mil. Milliradians can be abbreviated as mrad, for example 1 milliradian can be written as 1 mrad.