Scott O'Grady wouldn't have been shot down if ...

[Correction: Updating version with F-16, not F-117.]

Maj Gen David Scott yesterday greatly added to the unclassified record of the F-117 F-16 shoot-down over Bosnia 14 years ago. Addressing the Association of Old Crows convention, Scott, air staff requirements director, says Capt O'Grady's fighter was shot down because the USAF failed to install a piece of technology it had developed 10 years earlier. His explanation reveals much about the USAF's prevailing attitude towards electronic warfare funding.

"No matter what you all have heard and all the things, and a lot of us fighter pilots, you know, man, if it had been me, it would never have happened. No that's not true, and I know a little bit more and we can't get into details, but if we go back in the back room, I can probably tell you a little bit more because right after that, I came to the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron.

The chief of staff at the time was a guy named Fogleman. He knew some systems that we had that were sitting in a bucket back here that we just hadn't paid for and we just hadn't brought forth that would have enabled us within two months, we take that system to Aviano, we put it on the F-16s, and today it's flying on lots of airplanes and it has the capability that we need to give to the warfighter."

Several minutes later, Scott returns to the F-16 shoot-down theme:

Personally, and is just a personal opinion, but I got to be very involved in all the tests and evaluation as we looked at the shoot-down, as we looked at the capabilities that he had on his aircraft, as we looked at how the Serbians did the particular shot and the things that they did, if he had had that piece of equipment that General Fogleman had worked on when he was a one star general, an A8 XP, now he's the chief of staff 10 years later, and we have to have a chief of staff say, 'Put that on the airplane. Why is that not there?'