President of Serbia Alexander Vucic announced yesterday that his country was about to open a UAV factory with Israeli company Elbit Systems (TASE: ESLT; Nasdaq: ESLT). The inauguration is expected to take place between September 15 and September 20. Elbit Systems will hold a 51% majority stake in the factory and Serbia's state-owned arms company SDPR will hold 49%.
In August last year, "Globes" reported that a "European country" that asked not to be named had bought defense solutions amounting to $1.63 billion from Elbit Systems. It was quickly discovered that the country in question was Serbia.
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The five-year contract between Elbit Systems and Serbia covers precision long-range artillery rocket systems and a range of unmanned aerial systems for intelligence gathering and attack, including personal drones. Elbit Systems will also supply advanced ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance) capabilities, intelligence gathering and processing systems, advanced electro-optic systems, night-vision systems, and upgrades to battlefield vehicles and protection systems. Besides this, Elbit Systems will provide a comprehensive solution for military digitization and battlefield communications based on the latest generation of equipment and software.
The contract is among the highest value deals by Israeli defense companies. Top of the list is the sale of the Arrow 3 system to Germany by Israel Aerospace Industries in 2023 for $3.5 billion. Before that, the most valuable contract was the sale of Barak 8 air defense systems by Israel Aerospace Industries to India in 2017 for $1.6 billion. A month later, the naval version of Barak 8 was sold to India for a further $630 million.
Greece recently approved the €3.5 billion purchase of a multi-layer air defense system from Israel. The deal consists of Rafael's David's Sling in the long-range tier, Israel Aerospace Industries Barak MX in the medium-range tier, and Rafael's Spyder in the short-range tier. Earlier this year, Romania bought the Spyder system for €2 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 9, 2026.
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