Serbian Drone Factory Tied to Israeli Weapons Maker Runs Through UK Shell Company, Records Show

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stood beside an Elbit Systems executive last week and piloted a drone through the air for cameras. "The plans are big," he said on Instagram. "I'm only showing a small part of what I'm allowed to show."

What he did not show, according to company records reviewed by Middle East Eye, is who actually owns the factory now producing those drones.

When BIRN and Haaretz first reported the venture in April, it was described as a 51-49 joint venture between Elbit Systems, Israel's largest weapons manufacturer, and Yugoimport-SDPR, Serbia's state arms producer. Current filings in the Serbian Business Registry and the UK's Companies House do not reflect that structure at all.

The registered owner of the factory is a company called SDS Technologies, founded in April 2025 under the name Cupa Enterprises. SDS Technologies is in turn owned by a UK company formerly called Cupa Limited, which on Monday changed its name in the UK register to Liberty Blue International Ltd.

As of 17 September, the Serbian registry listed three directors of SDS Technologies: Greek national Maria Kardamaki, American-Lebanese George Antoine Elghossain, and Israeli lawyer Zion Amir, who has represented Benjamin Netanyahu. BIRN first reported Amir's appointment on 20 September.

Liberty Blue International's sole active director is Polychronis Tsianakas, registered at an address in London's St James's. Another director, Greek national Athanasios Rammos, resigned from the UK company in July and from SDS Technologies on 17 September, but Companies House records show he still controls 75 percent of the company's shares.

Neither Elbit Systems nor Yugoimport-SDPR appears anywhere in the Serbian or UK filings. Elbit did not announce the factory opening publicly and did not respond to MEE's questions about its relationship to SDS Technologies.

"An enormous discrepancy exists between what was originally announced and what appears in the formal documents," said Vuk Vuksanovic, a lecturer at King's College London's Department of War Studies.

Vuksanovic told MEE that Elbit "likely provided the technological solutions for this facility," but said the ownership structure "requires closer scrutiny, especially since non-transparency and opaque, secretive agreements have been the norm in the Serbian defence industry."

The opening ceremony itself left little doubt about the Israeli role on the ground. Ran Kril, Elbit's executive vice president for international marketing, sat beside Vucic. Israel's ambassador to Serbia, Avivit Bar-Ilan, attended, and the Israeli embassy called the factory "another milestone in our strong and strategic partnership." Vucic said Serbia's Krusik plant would manufacture the warheads and that at least three more factories were planned with "our Israeli partners."

The inauguration came five weeks before Serbia's 25 October election, in which Vucic is seeking the prime minister's post. MEE notes Elbit has also signed a reported $335m deal with Serbia for Puls artillery and Hermes 900 drones this year, alongside drone and flight-school agreements in Albania and existing production sites in Romania, part of a wider pattern of Elbit manufacturing moving into the Balkans through structures that keep its name off the paperwork.