Opening Ceremony of Small Arms Factory in Uzici

On 1 July 2017, a small arms factory in Uzici near Pozega was opened as a part of a defense industry development project known under the working title: Defense and Technological Industrial Base of Serbia (OTIBS) - "2020 Vision".

The trial run was conducted in the presence of President Aleksandar Vucic, Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin, Minister of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Zoran Đorđević, Director of Jugoimport-SDPR J.P. Jugoslav Petković, Deputy Director of Jugoimport-SDPR J.P. Branislav Prostran and other dignitaries.

The investor of the Small Arms Facotry is Complex Combat Systems, a company which makes part of Jugoimport-SDPR J.P..

The funds invested in the project amount to about 90 mil euros. After the completion of the first phase, the factory employs 255 people working on the 7.62 x 39 mm and 9 x 19 mm ammunition program. The output for both 7.62 mm and 9 mm ammunition is 51.5 million rounds of each caliber per year. The value of the production is about 26 mil EUR on annul basis.

In the first phase, 19 facilities with a gross surface area of 9,000 m2 were built with all the infrastructure. The first phase was completed on schedule, and the second phase that includes 12.7 mm ammunition program is expected to be finished by 2020. After the second phase, the factory would have 470 employees.

As the previously existing facilities could not meet the market demand, this new factory was built to increase the volume and range of products offered by the Serbian defense industry.