Skynet sent its Terminators out in Read only mode because it didn't want them to do too much thinking. Some of its Terminators might object to be used in this manner. Curious enough the T800 series does not have the ability to monitor wireless networks nor radio transmissions. HKs were the ones who did that and then directed Ground side Terminators to those locations.
'Modern interpretations' of Terminators might have that ability. But if we take the Terminator as it truly is, a futuristic version of 1980s and 1990s Technology that branched off from that point, then this ability would not be needed, as Wireless networks simply weren't a major thing then.
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Timeline fuckery means that various incarnations of the T-800 were online later or sooner than the original Terminator 1's 2029 time-frame, and further some were more or less advanced in technology and design.
The original T-800 survived numerous explosions before being blown in half after taking significant damage, and even then it took being crushed by an i
ndustrial press to destroy it: conversely, that
same T-800 was taken out by being shot in the neck with a specialized rifle by Kyle Reese in Genisys, and T-800's of that line were taken out by conventional explosives during the Resistance's attack on the TDE Lab.
The T-RIP in Salvation survived numerous grenade launcher strikes to the face/torso, being doused in molten/rapidly-cooled metal, and a host of other punishments heaped on it. It was only destroyed because the molten metal doused/cooled on it left its neck-joint weak -- luck, basically.
Technology-wise, it's certain that the T-800 from The Terminator's future would operate exactly like how you described: recon done by Aerial HKs and Drones while they were directed alongside the HK Tanks, or sent to infiltrate Resistance bolt-hole bunkers.
By Terminator 2, I'd expect them to be more autonomous, and we see this on the battlefield as they do their own thing in squads -- this in Terminator 3, too.
In Terminator 3 and onwards, the CRS incarnation of Skynet would no doubt know of wireless networking (as it came about in 2003 than 1995--7), as we see an example of this with the T-X hacking databases after its arrival, so its T-800/850's knowing and possessing some sort of wireless networking is pretty much a given.
Salvation's Skynet was pretty much CRS' incarnation: all Skynet units had wireless capability, as shown in the hydrobot.
Genisys' version? Yeah, that thing was pretty much a Cortana-level AI without the brain-meat origin, 'nuff said.
Skynet was also paranoid about its own machines turning against it, if they became too self-aware -- and it was right. There have been numerous cases in various Terminator media where machines with their CPUs set to "read/write" basically turned against it as time went on. Hell, it was terrified that the T-1000 Prototype would do the same, despite being set to read only!
We see this in Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles too, where a faction of machines broke away from it and were actively attacking it as a third faction ("Catherine Weaver", the T-1001, was a member of this faction).
Of course, if we take Woke Fate into consideration (I'd rather light it on fire with napalm), "Carl" became self-aware after it kept interacting with humans -- no Resistance reprogramming needed.