These planes first used their onboard weapons, when they had them, and normal bombs called iron bombs (undirected fall). Most of this equipment was old. Dropping bombs at very high speeds presented real dangers:armed in three seconds, they could collide with each other, explode, or hit the plane that dropped them. New equipment was absolutely necessary, and guided missiles were used.
The first of these machines was the Bullpup, yet ten years old. It could be fired from a helicopter or an airplane, but required continuous guidance to the target. Anti-aircraft opposition was at first negligible, but by 1966 the Russians had installed a vast system of several thousand automatic weapons or surface-to-air rocket sites, which proved increasingly effective and dangerous. Moreover, 2,000 soldiers firing — even with rifles alone — at a plane at low altitude could do great damage. However, Bullpup and the other machines of the same type -necessitated by their guidance a long exposure to the enemy fire. It was officially admitted that "the damage due to the firing of certain missiles could be double that suffered in dive attacks or during passages at low altitude".
For the release of normal bombs, the jet planes made passes at 720-780 km/h, during dives ranging from 25" to 60°. For the napalm bombs, they were simply dropped, but with a Very low altitude:60 to 80 m In most ground support missions, especially if the adversaries were close to each other, the presence of a FAC (Forward Air Controller) scout was necessary to spot the exact enemy. enemy and lead the attack.
Sometimes the FAC was on the ground, but most often he was in a Cessna O-2 or similar light aircraft. The FAC could draw enemy defensive fire on itself, but its role was essentially to locate the objective, mark it with smoke or rockets, and then set the distance at which the attacking aircraft should drop its bombs or rockets. . This work was extremely dangerous. Later, the Cessna 0-2TT, with two propeller engines, became the standard aircraft for these missions. The Cessna's task also included "psychological warfare":throwing leaflets, operating loudspeakers and projectors, etc.
From 1968, the work of the FAC was often taken in hand by fighter-bomber pilots; they knew every inch of terrain, and immediately noticed anomalies, unnatural changes in topography or flora, which most often signified a camouflaged enemy presence. The FAC scouts then most often kept their F-100s from their F-4s, and the two-seater version of the Skyhawk, the TA-4J, very capable of fulfilling this mission well. These experienced men were indeed able to respond to a call from the ground on the minute and immediately direct a devastating attack on the objective.