F-15s Scrambled from Portland Air National Guard Base

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)

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noun

1

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d

: a rapid emergency takeoff of interceptor fighter aircraft

Further reading: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scramble

In military terminology, this is your ready reaction force that can be deployed on a moments notice. The part of your military that can be “scrambled” is configured for immediate combat with no warning. Therefore “scrambling” is to deploy those immediate combat configured assets.

Militaries are large logistical organizations and it takes a long time — weeks depending on the type of unit — to spin them up to combat readiness. To be scramble-ready is very expensive both in terms of cost and wear-and-tear on personnel, so most of the military is not configured to operate this way all the time, and it would probably would not be sustainable for people to be permanently in that posture. The units that can scramble for an immediate threat buy time for other military units to spin up their full combat capability. There is a lot of rotation among units on this kind of duty to keep them fresh.