Why not jet AOPs?

[thatguy96]

This is basically what I thought the reasiong was, and it does make a lot of sense. Its not true historically though. I'm also not talking about jet recon aircraft, but rather jet observation aircraft. The OA-10 was operated specifically in this role, flying low, operating in the FAC capacity.

During the Vietnam War, a transitional period between guided and unguided munitions, electronic countermeasures and a lack thereof, and of sophisticated optical systems and human eyes, the "Fast FAC" was operated to provide perhaps shoddier actual recon, but to be safer than O-1s and O-2s for instance operating in the same capacity. The USMC used TA-4Js and other aircraft in this capacity to make up for the blatant shortcomings of the O-1E Bird Dog against even the least sophisticated AAA.