Vucic: Ballistic Missiles in Serbia Within a Year
President Aleksandar Vucic said at the Serbia-Uzbekistan business forum that Serbia will start producing long-range ballistic missiles within a year, thanks to technology transfers from other powers.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said today, September 8, at the opening of the Serbia-Uzbekistan Business Forum in Belgrade that Serbia will start producing long-range ballistic missiles within a year. The forum was organized as part of the official two-day visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Serbia.
Vucic made the announcement in his opening remarks to Uzbek business representatives, speaking about the results of the domestic defense industry. He said Serbia is receiving technology transfers from certain powers, without specifying which countries, and that this transfer is the main reason behind the accelerated progress.
How far has Serbia gotten with missile production?
According to what the president said at the forum, Serbia already produces short-range missiles. The question he raised was how long it would take the country to take the next step, to long-range missiles. Vucic put that question directly to Nenad Miloradovic, assistant defense minister for material resources, who answered that it would be possible within a year.
The president then relayed that estimate publicly, as an official announcement:
“We are making progress in the defense industry, we are receiving technology transfers from some powers, and within a year we are starting the production of long-range ballistic missiles.”
He said this as part of a broader address on the state of Serbia’s defense industry, and immediately afterward offered the Uzbek side cooperation in that field, saying Serbia is ready to develop weapons production together with Uzbekistan.
Sources differ on how the exchange actually unfolded. The N1 news agency and the Nova.rs website report the statement as a single sentence from Vucic’s address, without mentioning the exchange with Miloradovic in the quote itself. Informer, on the other hand, reports that the one-year timeline first came up through the president’s direct question to the assistant minister and his answer, and only after that did Vucic confirm the timeline with the words “within a year we are starting the production of long-range ballistic missiles.” The substance of the announcement is the same in both versions; the difference is whether Vucic or Miloradovic was the first to say the timeframe out loud.
A forum tied to Mirziyoyev’s visit
The Serbia-Uzbekistan Business Forum is part of President Mirziyoyev’s two-day visit, who arrived in Belgrade to a ceremonial welcome at Nikola Tesla Airport. Economic cooperation between the two countries was already a topic in the two presidents’ talks even before the forum, and the defense industry is now being added as another field in which Belgrade is expanding its offer to Tashkent.
Vucic did not name a specific model of cooperation, nor did he say whether it would include missile production itself, only stating that Serbia is “ready to cooperate” with Uzbekistan in that field. He also did not say which countries are supplying Serbia with long-range missile technology, so that part of the statement remains unexplained for now.
The president was also announced as a guest on Radio Television of Serbia’s main evening news that same day, in the 7:30 p.m. slot, where the defense industry and the Uzbek president’s visit were expected to be discussed further.
For Serbia’s defense industry, this is the first public announcement to name a timeline for moving into long-range missile production. Official statements up to now have been limited to mentions of rising weapons exports and the modernization of existing capacity, without a specific date for this new type of product. It remains to be seen whether more details will follow in the coming months, including which technologies are behind the announced step and whether the one-year timeline refers to the start of serial production or to the first test units.
