Serbia opens factory to build Israeli UAVs

Elbit's Lanius-X quadcopter is now being assembled in Serbia. (Elbit Systems)

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić announced the opening of the first factory in Serbia that will manufacture Israeli-designed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on 17 September.

He posted short video clips to his social media channels showing him at the factory, which is run by a previously unknown company called SDS Technologies. Employees of the company showed him a partially assembled quadcopter and a completed one in a testing area that enabled it to be manoeuvred in and around a simulated building.

“The plans are big. I'm only showing a small part of what I'm allowed to show,” Vučić said in one post. “We believe that with our Israeli partners we will open at least three more factories across Serbia.”

In a telephone interview with Serbia's Informer newspaper on the same day, Vučić said the factory is building Lanius-X UAVs and there are plans to also build FireFox and Magni UAVs.

The Lanius-X small quadcopter made by the Israeli company Elbit Systems matches the type seen at the SDS Technologies factory. Elbit describes it as a first-person-view (FPV) UAV that can reconnoitre buildings and can be fitted with a warhead so it can be used as a one-way-attack (OWA) weapon.

Elbit advertises the FireFox-X as an FPV OWA UAV that is controlled via a fibre-optic cable with a range of up to 15 km to make it immune to jamming.

Serbia has already developed a similar UAV called the Komarac (mosquito), which Vučić acknowledged was cheaper than its Israeli counterparts.

The president also described the Magni, which is another quadcopter made by Elbit, as “extremely important” as it is used for reconnaissance.