Two Hungarian Gripen fighter jets were scrambled on September 25 from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, NATO Air Command reported on September 25.

The jets intercepted a formation of Russian aircraft—including a Su-30, a Su-35, and three MiG-31s—flying near Latvian airspace.

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[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

The word "scrambled" really irritates me in the context of dispatching jets to intercept something. Always makes it seem like the jets were "scrambled" in an unorganised way or something.

[–] HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago

It's a military term from long before you were born, I think you might just need to get used to it 😁

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That's exactly what it means but in reference to the crew not the planes.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/scramble

1580s (intransitive), "make one's way by clambering, etc., struggle or wriggle along," also "strive with others or jostle and grasp rudely for a share or for mastery;" a word of obscure origin, perhaps a nasalized variant of scrabble (v.) "to struggle; to scrape quickly." OED points to dialectal scramb "pull together with the hands," a variant of scramp, which is probably a nasalized form of scrape.

https://youtu.be/KoWc_kjblVI

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think it works something like this:
Calm down now, no need for control, everything is under panic.

But anyways, AFAIK the term describes an unplanned very quick deployment.

[–] usrtrv@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Well relative to how organized militaries typically are, just the sheer beaucracy of it all, it is somewhat unorganized.

[–] krull_krull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought it was some sort of electronic hacking at first. Where the jets electronic systems are being attacked.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I only have experience of eggs getting scrambled. The verb seems weird when applied to planes.