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Old 27th Apr 2022, 03:22
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West Coast
 
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Originally Posted by Lonewolf_50
FWIW, maritime / carrier wise:
The F8 Crusader became the RF-8 (slick) unarmed recce bird in the USN. (VFP-63 is the last squadron I recall having it)
The RF-4 IIRC (memory hazy) had a photo capability.
F-14 Tomcat in its later years had something similar. (TARPS was but one add on, but then, so was ground attack! )
All of the above are/were USN aircraft.

More recently, there is some interesting imagery that current fighter aircraft can provide to the ISR team using their targeting pods. The F-16's did some very nice "non Traditional ISR" over Iraq during OIF. (But I am going back nearly two decades in recalling that).

Other 'pods' attached to an aircraft would, I expect, blur the distinction you seem to be referring to as the years have gone by.
The Marines also operated the RF-4, not sure if we had RF-8s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMFP-3
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