Banja Luka builds a sniper rifle, police order 20

The first sniper rifle designed and built in Republika Srpska was presented on July 30 at the training centre range in Zaluzani, just outside Banja Luka, and the Interior Ministry of Republika Srpska (MUP RS) placed an order for the first 20 units for its Gendarmerie. For Serbia this lands closer to home than it looks: precision rifles are a business Zastava Arms in Kragujevac has been in for decades, and it now has a neighbouring competitor that was built around off-the-shelf global parts from day one.

The rifle was developed by Kosmos, a Banja Luka defence company, together with the Interior Ministry. Its designer is Predrag Igrutinovic, a retired gunsmith with decades behind him in weapons design and manufacturing. The weapon is a tactical-sporting rifle built for accurate shooting at long range, a category police units rarely reach for and never reach for casually.

Why .308?

Because it is the one caliber nobody has to beg a single supplier for. Igrutinovic explained the thinking behind the design at the range:

“This is a rifle in 308 caliber, meaning NATO caliber. The design was done so that it is fully compatible with components that are mass-produced around the world.”

That choice is a procurement decision rather than a technical footnote. Barrels, optics, rails and ammunition in that standard are made in dozens of countries, so the supply chain does not hang on one factory or one export licence. By the designer’s own description the same rifle works as a sporting piece and as a tactical one, which opens a civilian market alongside police contracts.

Twenty units are a production trial, not a delivery

The Gendarmerie order is not simply kit for one unit. The batch is meant to let Kosmos absorb serial production technology, with a small production run planned afterwards. The first testing phase is complete and the results were judged acceptable, which moves the next milestone from the firing range to the shop floor.

The presentation was attended by Savo Minic, Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Interior Minister Zeljko Budimir and Police Director Sinisa Kostresevic. Minic placed the project in a wider frame:

“It is encouraging that Republika Srpska, relying on the knowledge, expertise and work of domestic engineers, is strengthening its capacity in the defence industry year after year.”

Budimir focused on where the solution came from. “It is very important that this weapon was made with domestic brains,” the minister said. Kosmos director Dusan Vjestica said the Interior Ministry and its special units followed the development, and alongside the Gendarmerie, which takes the first batch, the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit is named in the testing and preparation work.

What comes next

The Gendarmerie goes first for a reason, since it is the formation trained for open-ground shooting at distance. The questions that a firing range cannot settle are the ones still open: unit price, the delivery schedule for the small series, and whether the rifle finds a military buyer or an export licence once the police order is filled.

For now Republika Srpska holds three things it did not hold in this segment before: a prototype that cleared its first testing phase, a signed order from a domestic customer, and a designer’s name attached to the project. In the defence industry, that is the order in which a serial production line usually arrives.