Serbia Poised to Produce Drones with Israeli Arms Giant Involved in Gaza
- Sasa Dragojlo and Avi Scharf | BIRN
- 3 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Serbia plans to produce drones with the Israeli arms giant Elbit Systems, BIRN/Haaretz can reveal, despite the firm’s high-profile involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
April 7, 2026 07:45
In early March, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced the imminent opening of a drone factory. “For serious drones,” he said. “The most serious in the world.”
Vucic said the factory would be a joint venture between two partners and might be ready in April, but he didn’t specify with whom Serbia was partnering. The answer might prove unsavoury for some.
BIRN and Haaretz can reveal that the factory will be co-owned by top Israeli Elbit Systems and Serbia’s main state-owned import-export company, SDPR – with the Israeli partner having a majority state of 51 per cent.
In a June 2025 report, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese named Elbit Systems among a number of companies profiting from “the ongoing genocide” in Gaza, where more than 70,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli military operations since the October 2023 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas.
According to official documents obtained by BIRN/Haaretz and two independent sources, Elbit and SDPR plan to produce two types of drones for short- and long-range missions.
The partnership arguably takes defence ties between the two countries to a new level; the value of Serbian arms exports to Israel has already skyrocketed 42-fold since 2023, reaching 114 million euros last year. Most of those exports were carried out by SDPR.
Serbia stands to benefit financially from the drone joint venture and from the transfer of technology and knowledge from one of the most advanced arms companies in the world, said Vuk Vuksanovic, foreign policy lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Israel, on the other hand, is keen to secure a military supply chain outside its immediate region, “which is constantly in a conflict zone”, he told BIRN.
On a geopolitical level, Vuksanovic said Serbia’s ruling elite has come to see Israel as a “shortcut to the White House”, at a time of growing popular dissatisfaction with Vucic and the ruling Progressive Party after 14 years in power.
“The Serbian ruling party’s main priority now is staying in power and in order to achieve that, it is best not to anger the Americans, especially in the context of recent Trump moves in the global arena,” he said.
SDPR did not respond to questions from BIRN, while Elbit Systems only replied: “No comment.”
‘Omnipresent killing machines’
The plan for the project, according to documents reviewed by BIRN and corroborated by two independent sources close to the Serbian arms industry, is to produce two types of drones – a rotary-wing model capable of carrying heavy payloads of ammunition on short-range missions and a more sophisticated, long-range drone capable of flying at altitudes of up to 6,000 metres.
One source said the long-range drone is “more advanced” than the Serbian-produced Pegasus. “It has a higher flight altitude and greater operational autonomy,” the source told BIRN on condition of anonymity. “That’s the essence, because we can’t achieve that ourselves.”
“The general idea is the transfer of technology, because Serbian engineers will be working on it as well, and that drone is the crown of the whole story.”
According to one source, engineers from the Serbian aircraft company UTVA, owned by SDPR, will be also involved in the project.
Albanese’s report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, mentions drones developed and supplied by Elbit Systems and another Israeli company as flying alongside the Israeli fighter jets that have been bombing Gaza. The drones, she wrote, provide surveillance of Palestinians and intelligence on targets.
With the support of these companies and collaboration with institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, wrote Albanese, “drones used by Israel acquired automated weapons systems and the ability to fly in swarm formation”.
“Drones, hexacopters and quadcopters have also been omnipresent killing machines in the skies of Gaza,” she declared.
Albanese identified Elbit System as among those companies that “contribute to producing the tools for surveillance, crowd control, urban warfare, facial recognition and targeted killing, tools that are effectively tested on Palestinians”.
Israel has dismissed allegations of genocide.
The documents obtained by BIRN reveal it was initially planned for the drone factory to be potentially located in the industrial zone of Simanovci, about 30 kilometres west of the capital, Belgrade, in a facility owned by the Pink Media group, the company of pro-government Serbian media tycoon Zeljko Mitrovic.
However, following publication of the article, Pink Media Group denied that the factory will be located there. “This information is completely false. Neither Zeljko Mitrovic nor Pink Media Group have anything to do with this project. He hasn’t participated, nor is he participating in any talks, negotiations, deals or arrangements related to this drone factory,” the company stated, adding that no company linked to Mitrovic also had any role in the project.
Reputational risk
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, which tracks the global trade in arms, Elbit Systems is Israel’s No. 1 defence contractor, operating in fields including aerospace, land and naval command and control, communications, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
In March, The Jerusalem Post reported that Elbit Systems is now the biggest Israeli firm by market value listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It has a string of major contracts with the Israeli state and has already done business with Serbia.
Early last year, Elbit Systems sold Serbia advanced artillery systems and drones worth $335 million. In August, another deal valued at $1.6 billion was signed for the delivery of drones, long-range missiles, electronic warfare systems, and other military equipment to Belgrade. The same month, BIRN reported that the Belgrade-based company Edepro – which describes itself as a “regional leader in propulsion system solutions” for rockets, drones, and missiles – had exported goods to IMI Systems, which is owned by Elbit Systems since 2018.
Its role in Gaza has given other states pause. Citing an official document, Agence France-Presse, AFP, reported in September last year that Spain had cancelled a contract worth some 700 million euros for the purchase of Elbit’s multiple rocket launcher system after the government announced a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel over its Gaza offensive.
Last month, a group calling itself The Earthquake Faction claimed responsibility for a fire at a factory belonging to Czech LPP Holding, which has announced in 2023 that it would partner with Elbit in developing drones. The group said its aim was to disrupt Israeli operations in Gaza.
Such setbacks have not stopped Elbit Systems from posting revenues last year of $7.9 billion, 16.3 per cent up on 2024, boosted further by the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
Visiting in Serbia in March, Albanese described the Balkan country as “one of Israel’s strongest and most determined allies, without any shame”. In response, Serbia’s foreign ministry called her remarks “inappropriate”.
Genocide accusations – and denial
In September last year, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and mass destruction.
“When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” said the head of the commission, Navi Pillay.
Previously, in January 2024, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, ordered Israel to prevent its forces from committing or inciting genocidal acts against Palestinians, in response to a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. A final ruling on whether Israel has committed genocide in Gaza could take years. Israel has denied doing so.
Issues even before Gaza war
In 2009, Norway’s government announced it had excluded Elbit Systems from investment by the Government Pension Fund based on a recommendation by the Fund’s Council on Ethics over Elbit’s supplying of surveillance systems for a separation barrier in the West Bank. “We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,” said Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s then finance minister.
In January 2010, Danske Bank added Elbit to a list of companies that it said failed its Socially Responsible Investment policy; two months later, a Swedish pension fund also boycotted the firm for its involvement in the construction of the West Bank barrier, which a 2004 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice said contravened international law.
In 2014, one of Denmark’s largest pension fund administrators, PKA Ltd, announced it would no longer consider investing in Elbit, citing the same reasons.
And in 2018, British bank HSBC divested from Elbit following the Israeli firm’s acquisition of IMI Systems. HSBC cited IMI’s production of cluster bombs.
NOTE: This article was amended on April 7, 2026 to rectify a reference to Pink Media Group and Zeljko Mitrovic, and to include the company’s denial of any involvement in the project.
Copyright BIRN 2025
