Serbia’s Israeli-backed drone factory set to open in September
President Aleksandar Vucic said the facility could be inaugurated around September 15 or 20, five months after first announcing the project. Elbit Systems will hold a 51% stake, with Serbia’s SDPR holding the remainder.
Serbia’s planned drone factory with Israeli defense company Elbit Systems is expected to open in September, President Aleksandar Vucic said Thursday, giving the project its first specific timetable since it was announced five months ago.
Vucic said the opening ceremony could take place around September 15 or 20. He made the announcement at the Palace of Serbia during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that representatives from Ukraine had also been invited to the event.
“In September we are opening a drone factory with the Israelis,” Vucic said.
Vucic said the invitation to Ukraine was linked to the country’s experience with drone manufacturing. He denied discussing military cooperation with Zelensky during the visit.
“We did not discuss any military cooperation today, not in this day and age,” he said. “What happens once the war ends is a different matter.”
The planned factory is being built in Simanovci, around 30 kilometers west of Belgrade. Elbit will hold a 51% stake in the venture, while Serbia’s state-owned Jugoimport SDPR will own 49%.
The project is intended to produce two types of combat drones. One will be a short-range, high-payload aircraft with rotating wings, while the second will be a longer-range and faster model with a flight ceiling of more than six kilometers. The latter is expected to be more advanced than Serbia’s existing Pegaz drone.
Engineers from Utva, the SDPR-owned Serbian aircraft manufacturer, are also expected to participate in the project.
The project was first announced by Vucic on March 7, when he said Serbia would soon open a factory producing what he described as “very serious” drones and suggested that production could begin as early as April.
The April deadline passed without the factory opening. The identity of the Israeli partner was subsequently reported as Elbit, while the September timetable is the first time Serbia has provided a specific window for the inauguration.
The factory is part of a rapidly expanding defense relationship between Serbia and Elbit.
In 2024, Serbia signed $335 million in contracts with Elbit covering PULS artillery systems and Hermes 900 combat drones. In August 2025, it signed a further agreement worth $1.6 billion covering drones, long-range missiles and electronic warfare systems.
Serbia has also significantly increased its exports of weapons and ammunition to Israel. Those exports rose 42-fold from 2023 and reached €114 million by the end of last year, with most of the trade conducted through SDPR.
