4 ms·

F-15s Scrambled from Portland Air National Guard Base

53 points by za3faran 4y ago

kaycebasques 4y ago
What does "scrambled" mean in this context?
- muricula 4y ago
  It means the planes took off in a hurry I think. Not like eggs.
  - wflann 4y ago
    Yep. Kind of like police being dispatched to a crime in progress instead of a general patrol.
- yarri 4y ago
  Likely this one… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  scramble 2 of 2 noun 1 ... d : a rapid emergency takeoff of interceptor fighter aircraft Further reading: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scramble https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scramble
- jandrewrogers 4y ago
  In tech geek terms, it is like being in the on-call rotation for operations. When stuff blows up, you are expected to be addressing it within minutes. 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.
  - nicholasbraker 4y ago
    The units are ready 24/7, pilots are in flight gear, G-suits zipped up and planes ready (meaning internal INS lined up. This takes some time normally) ready to jump in and take-off within 5 minutes. Usually there's two types of scrambles: Alpha and Tango. Alpha being the real thing and Tango for training. I am not familiar with normal ops out of Portland, but back in the Cold War days our nearby US F-15's out of Soesterberg airbase in Holland conducted Tango scrambles quite regularly to keep pilots trained. Alpha scrambles were very rare except for this Russian MiG-23 without a pilot transiting the East-west DMZ in 1990. It is logistically expensive, but especially since 9/11 these units are ready. Not only in the US, but in Europe too (as well as other parts probably)
chrisweekly 4y ago
Any reliably-sourced info re: why they were scrambled? The twitter thread suggests they flew from PDX to Montana...
mgh2 4y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34758429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34758429
winddude 4y ago
Could it have been a training or readiness exercise?
wolverine876 4y ago
Why is normally fact-based, analytical, intellectual HN promoting ~4 vacuous social media panic stories [edit: about objects in US airspace) to the front page? How does that suddenly happen?
- poisonarena 4y ago
  because UFO, fighter jets, balloon probes, and geopolitics. Seems pretty interesting to me.
- encryptluks2 4y ago
  Seems like the typical Musk-suppression filters could be readjusted.
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  Saturday night internet is always kinda weird, likely due to so many people doing other things on the weekend.
thejefflarson 4y ago
I live right by where these birds takeoff, we heard them, and I can tell you this is a normal day of the week. Not sure "scrambled" is correct here.
- jahlove 4y ago
  > In military aviation, scrambling is the act of quickly mobilising military aircraft. Scrambling can be in reaction to an immediate threat, usually to intercept hostile aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
  - thejefflarson 4y ago
    Sure my point here was it quickly? Or routine?
    - abudabi123 4y ago
      The top-brass testing the rust?
jjtheblunt 4y ago
I do wish i could programmatically block everything shared from twitter.
- disambiguation 4y ago
  it's very easy to setup tinyproxy with an allow/deny list that your browser uses to filter traffic
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    Oh thank you for the reference; looking into it

53 points by za3faran 4y ago

kaycebasques 4y ago

What does "scrambled" mean in this context?

muricula 4y ago
It means the planes took off in a hurry I think. Not like eggs.
- wflann 4y ago
  Yep. Kind of like police being dispatched to a crime in progress instead of a general patrol.
yarri 4y ago
Likely this one… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
Dalewyn 4y ago
scramble 2 of 2 noun 1 ... d : a rapid emergency takeoff of interceptor fighter aircraft Further reading: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scramble https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scramble
jandrewrogers 4y ago
In tech geek terms, it is like being in the on-call rotation for operations. When stuff blows up, you are expected to be addressing it within minutes. 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.
- nicholasbraker 4y ago
  The units are ready 24/7, pilots are in flight gear, G-suits zipped up and planes ready (meaning internal INS lined up. This takes some time normally) ready to jump in and take-off within 5 minutes. Usually there's two types of scrambles: Alpha and Tango. Alpha being the real thing and Tango for training. I am not familiar with normal ops out of Portland, but back in the Cold War days our nearby US F-15's out of Soesterberg airbase in Holland conducted Tango scrambles quite regularly to keep pilots trained. Alpha scrambles were very rare except for this Russian MiG-23 without a pilot transiting the East-west DMZ in 1990. It is logistically expensive, but especially since 9/11 these units are ready. Not only in the US, but in Europe too (as well as other parts probably)

chrisweekly 4y ago

Any reliably-sourced info re: why they were scrambled? The twitter thread suggests they flew from PDX to Montana...

mgh2 4y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34758429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34758429

winddude 4y ago

Could it have been a training or readiness exercise?

wolverine876 4y ago

Why is normally fact-based, analytical, intellectual HN promoting ~4 vacuous social media panic stories [edit: about objects in US airspace) to the front page? How does that suddenly happen?

poisonarena 4y ago
because UFO, fighter jets, balloon probes, and geopolitics. Seems pretty interesting to me.
encryptluks2 4y ago
Seems like the typical Musk-suppression filters could be readjusted.
boomboomsubban 4y ago
Saturday night internet is always kinda weird, likely due to so many people doing other things on the weekend.

thejefflarson 4y ago

I live right by where these birds takeoff, we heard them, and I can tell you this is a normal day of the week. Not sure "scrambled" is correct here.

jahlove 4y ago
> In military aviation, scrambling is the act of quickly mobilising military aircraft. Scrambling can be in reaction to an immediate threat, usually to intercept hostile aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
- thejefflarson 4y ago
  Sure my point here was it quickly? Or routine?
  - abudabi123 4y ago
    The top-brass testing the rust?

jjtheblunt 4y ago

I do wish i could programmatically block everything shared from twitter.

disambiguation 4y ago
it's very easy to setup tinyproxy with an allow/deny list that your browser uses to filter traffic
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  Oh thank you for the reference; looking into it