Israel's flagship drone made first automated takeoff

Israel's flagship drone has made the first fully automated takeoff and landing in northern Israel last week in adverse weather conditions, the Walla news site reported Wednesday. The Heron TP, inaugurated by Israeli Air Force's (IAF) in 2010, is a fourth-generation all-weather unmanned aerial vehicle for battlefield surveillance. Although it is capable of automatic takeoff and landing, which is a built-in feature, the IAF's stringent safety guidelines have left that task to human operators on the ground. "The Eitan's takeoff and landing stages are critical, all the more so when there's heavy fog with zero visibility," a senior IAF official was quoted as saying. The IAF calls the drone "Eitan." While drone squadrons routinely opt to delay a mission under such circumstances, "essential operational activity" forced using the craft on full-auto, said the official. In the meantime, foreign media have credited the IAF with allegedly bombing Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah near Damascus on early Friday and Sunday.